I agree with the negative points about guilds, but I don't think they're any worse than the current PhD system in academia. Another important difference betwee

I agree with the negative points about guilds, but I don't think they're any worse than the current PhD system in academia. Another important difference between guilds and academia was that you did not have to pay tuition fees to become an apprentice. In some cases apprentices got no salary, but lived in the master's household and had free board and lodging - although their role typically also included some aspects of being a household servant. But you didn't have to pay an extortionate fee to get into an apprenticeship, and you typically did leave with skills that let you earn a living. The apprenticeship system was in other words accessible to a much wider class of people than "good" degrees nowadays are. Nowadays of course, apprenticeships pay you - not a lot, but enough to survive on.