My advice as a guide is don't put hunting on a pedestal. Forego the "apprentice" route and just head out and learn it yourself. Lots of us introduced ourselves to hunting, perhaps earlier than you in life but that's really not that important. Getting over the hurdle of thinking it's some endeavour requiring initiation or apprenticeship to take up will be good for you. A lot of people looking at hunting and rubbing their heads need to hear that.
YouTube is around now and most of us didn't have it, just search field dressing the game you're chasing (I'd suggest spring black bear to start this year), and go throw yourself in. For simple stuff like island bears and blacktail there just really isn't that much to it, find a cutblock that's greening up, show up before sunrise for a few days and see what happens. Bears are active all day in spring but particularly right at the beginning and end of the day. No deer hunting in spring of course but you'd be aware of that.
Get on google earth, backroads map books, have fun, you don't really need any gear and the hunting synopsis tells you everything you need to know on ID'ing bears. Good hunting to you.
