I've been following this discussion with a lot of interest, since I'm one of those wanna-be's everyone's talking about. However, I intend to put in my years of sweat. (Probably going to do the MA program at the Lactation Institute, etc, etc, etc. No quickie 6 week courses for me. I know there's *way* more to learn than that. Plus, I have a lot of personal experience.) Personally, though, I'd have to say that what I would *most* like right now is a mentor relationship with someone. I would happily do scut work for knowledge. And I do have some amount of time- I'm a SAH mom. I know many people who are interested in LC work go through a period at home, where with some amount of finagling they could probably give time for knowledge/learning. One local LC let me watch for a short time at some drop-in hours she has. It was wonderful! I just wanted to contribute the data point that some of us wanna-be's out here would be interested in this type of program, and are interested in putting in our years of sweat beyond/before (whichever) such a mentoring relationship. I'm sure there are others like me who would want to make sure the mentor got something out of it, too. But it occurs to me that my pediatrician has students with him all the time. He's on staff at a teaching hospital, but don't physicians mentor students to some degree- with no expectation of compensation? Or am I wrong? What are the patterns in other professions? Tricia Jalbert, in Oakland, CA