Apprentice is a person who learns a trade by working under the guidance of a skilled master. Apprentices serve in construction, metalworking, printing, and other skilled trades. Many employers and unions jointly direct apprenticeship programs. Usually, apprentices must be high-school graduates. Most apprentices earn wages and work regular hours. People who finish apprenticeships become journeymen (skilled workers).
Apprenticeship dates from ancient times. But it reached its most developed form between about A.D. 1000 and 1600, under European craft guilds. Apprentices served in almost every occupation, including medicine, painting, and brewing. Some girls were apprenticed to learn domestic skills, but most apprentices were boys. Ordinarily, a boy in his early teens went to live with a master, who taught him a craft and fed, housed, and clothed him. In return, the boy worked for the master about seven years. Once the training ended, the boy was a journeyman. He could sell his labor to any master.
Between the late 1700’s and mid-1800’s, apprenticeship changed greatly as power-driven machinery allowed unskilled workers to perform tasks of skilled hands, such as sewing and weaving. But new areas for apprenticeship opened, especially among machinists, electricians, and tool and die makers.
