Craftsmen in the past, when taking apprentices, first tested their character.
What you think of as an apprentice — like a well-behaved student in school, sitting obediently in the classroom, raising hands to speak when the teacher asks a question, diligently reading books and going home to do homework.
The actual apprentice — uneducated, illiterate, unloved by parents from a young age, sent out as an apprentice because the family could not afford to keep them. Clumsy with hands and feet, unable to understand work assignments, only able to give you a silly smile showing big teeth. Eating more than others when sees food, snatching faster than others when sees money, stops walking when sees women.
Why not directly teach apprentices the real skills?
That the Church apprentices starve the Counselor is only one aspect of the reason.
