Well in my opinion you dont really need to apprentice with someone. There are huge communities specializing in 3d programs and you can get almost any question aswered and for the most of the questions there is already a tutorial written. Try (if you already havent)
http://www.cgworks.com/, http://www.3dlinks.com/ and
http://www.cgnetworks.com/ (atm cgnetworks seems to be down).