Cardano is still being ran by the company/foundation behind it. It is yet to transition to actual PoS.

If I want to learn blockchain, would these two be good projects to start with?

Might also want to research Nano as a pure P2P currency. Cardano and Dot are more focused around smart contracts.

I started with a combination of crypto basics + bitcoin and Cardano. The combination was great imo.

Do you work in the blockchain space now? Is there a way I can get in touch with you?