Confirming ♥ @ Seagull.
The last time I dicked around with the NPE it was way, way better than the crap you and I had to slog through when we started. Aside from the first tutorials that you get from Aura (aka, here's how to move, here's how to undock, here's how to use your skill queue, OMG YOU ARE SUCH AN ADORABLE NEWBIE, etc.), you can actually run the rest of the NPE missions on any character via the Career Agents if you're curious to see what they're like. You can get a list of nearby ones through the Help menu.
Also, since Gorion will get mad at me if I don't point out Stimulus as a possibility if you're looking for a home for Koko, you can put it on your list if you like. Pretty quiet/casual these days, but there's usually fleets for people several days a week if you want; talk to Snake or Sakura for details on those.
If you were going to train a new character (whether on Koko's account through dualtraining, another account, or not training Koko) to do small ship stuff, there are definitely lots of options.