I definitely think the Master-Padawan program should stay, Would be a horrible thing to loose that. An important part of making a Master-Padawan bond so that someone new can easily feel they have someone to talk to and learn from, also for a RP reason among others. The mentor thing sounds like a good idea I think that certainly should be something considered for the Troopers and Smuggler players. Though perhaps have a limit on how many Padawans/Learners that a person with a Jedi and a Trooper character can have as after all the trainee/padawan will need training and assistance fairly often and to have to many on one person could become to much, also could decrease the quaility of training and amount of time spent with each learner.
Yanto
Master-Apprentice would be a better title. I dont see why would change anymore of our traditions. training to jump, duel and so on was fun in training.. but Maybe Completing a mission together working together(regardless of class/level) should suffice. When i trained my padawans I talked to them more then trained them. We taught each other to be equal, respectable.
If I had a padawan or a apprentice i would still give them homework.. for example.. for the next two days i want you to party up with a fellow member or a random Republic citizen and i want you to help them complete a quest... not for yourself but to help them.
on the third day see how their training went. If they did good, made a new friend or learned something new. teaching them the order is more then a community of guildmates but a community thats give back to the community it is a part of.
I can think of many ways to help a apprentice. Code, Ethics.. lore.. daily help. We are close because at some point in time one of us may have been your master.. or a peer that helped you and became you friend.. or the padawan you grew up with and have always been friends.. that is why we are all close and why our memories is what keeps us here.
If we get rid of the Master-apprentice tradition.. we'll loose our lore,rp and much much more.
~Ven