if an employer has told thier employee to do training courses online to gain certificates and knowledge about the profession to further grow in said company, and that employee accrues overtime during the pay period from the time it took doing these courses, is the employer liable to pay the employee time and a half for overtime wages?

my manager has signed me and a few other guys i work with for some classes online to get certificates in our field, and before he signed us up for them he told us “alright now the courses yall take dont count for overtime. youre just paid straight time no matter how many hours you get for it. doesnt count for work, but youre still getting piad straight time for them”.

this….. seems illegal. im in louisiana.