While the wealthy learned to read, write and do sums, the common people were more likely to be apprenticed.  A child's parents  would enter into a legal agreement with a tradesman, and their child would thereafter live with the tradesman and his family and learn his trade for the next several years.

A Goldsmith in his Shop. "The Legend of Saint Eligius and Saint Godoberta" 1449. Petrus Christus

http://www.renaissanceconnection.org/artistslife.html

http://www.antir.sca.org/Pubs/ATH/7apprentices.html

http://www.mediatinker.com/cennino/renaissance_notes/

http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/ARTH200/artist/guilds.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/C006522/life/women.php

http://books.google.com/books?id=JtYy67FsRosC&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281&dq=length+of+apprenticeships+during+renaissance&source=bl&ots=bEPU2jfc1q&sig=hrww0GeyHsvPByJSUT_vkZvPe20&hl=en&ei=uFRtTd3vIZKutwfnia3GBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

                                         Articles of Apprenticeship                 

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/80.html

Do apprenticeships still exist?  If so, how have they changed?  If not, what has replaced them?

What are articles of apprenticeship?