Apprenticeship Programs in Virginia – Career Training Base – An apprenticeship is a paid employee of a sponsoring company (the company that agrees to work with an apprentice). Sponsoring companies choose untrained employees and provide them with the training and education they need to become professionals in their careers. In Virginia, there are approximately 2,000 registered employers who take on apprentices regularly and there are approximately 13,000 apprentices learning careers at any given time.