Padawan

"The boy. He your son?''" "''No. He is my Padawan. Something between a student and an apprentice."

- Grecker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, discussing Anakin Skywalker

A Padawan, also known as a Padawan learner, Padawan apprentice, or Apprentice, referred to a Force-sensitive adolescent who trained in the Jedi Order to one day become a full-fledged Jedi. Padawans were known as Jedi younglings at first, and trained in classroom settings with multiple students and a teacher. After reaching a certain age, Padawans were normally apprenticed to a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master, beginning their one-on-one training. A Jedi was meant to choose the padawan who they wished to train. Apprentices would often go on missions with their masters as part of this one-on-one training. The Code forbade the Jedi from training more than one Padawan or apprentice at a time. Most of the Padawans were known to grow or wear Padawan braids to symbolize their rank. After completing the Jedi Trials, a Padawan would be promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight.

During the Clone Wars, the Jedi Council began to assign Padawans to Jedi, instead of allowing them to choose. During the war Padawans became commanders in the Grand Army of the Republic, and helped lead the Republic's clone troopers against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. After the establishment of the Galactic Empire, a few ex-Padawans that had survived Order 66 or left the Jedi Order before the purge joined the nascent Rebel Alliance.

Behind the scenes
The term "Padawan" first appeared as far back in George Lucas's first story treatments for the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. It wasn't heard, however, before the filming of the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the prequel trilogy. In all previous works, including the original movies or early Star Wars Legends stories, the concept was referred to as "Apprentice".