apprentice:
(plural: ‘apprentices‘)
a carpentry apprentice (R) learning the work with an expert (L) watching over
a person, usually a young man (or a young woman), who works for an expert or a skilled person in a particular trade for a fixed period of time in order to learn that trade, such as carpentry, blacksmithing, weaving, and even painting, accounting, etc.;
a beginner; a learner of some trade,
a female apprentice (L) with a senior foreman (R)
In the past, skilled workers accepted a couple of apprentices and trained them as true tradesmen.
These days we have government vocational training institutions which train some apprentices each year so that they can make a living on their own.
In the past there were only male apprentices, but these days we have female apprentices in almost all the trades, including mechanism, electrical, masonry… and what not!
