Short answer. The Labor Code sets three requirements: at least fourteen years of age, vocational aptitude and capacity for appropriate tests, and the ability to comprehend and follow oral and written instructions. The age figure is the Code's original one, and later child-labour legislation has since raised the general floor.
What the law says
To qualify as an apprentice, a person shall: Be at least fourteen (14) years of age; Possess vocational aptitude and capacity for appropriate tests; and Possess the ability to comprehend and follow oral and written instructions.
Labor Code, Article 59 — Qualifications Of An Apprentice. Read the full provision →
Three requirements, and they are cumulative
The article lists what a person shall have to qualify: an age, an aptitude and a comprehension. They are joined, not offered as alternatives, so an applicant old enough but unable to follow written instructions does not satisfy the article, and neither does a plainly capable applicant who is under the age. The second item is phrased as vocational aptitude and capacity for appropriate tests — that is, a suitability for the trade that can be assessed, which is why apprenticeship programmes normally involve some form of testing at entry.
Read the age figure with the child-labour statutes beside it
The Code says at least fourteen (14) years of age, and that number has to be read against later legislation. Republic Act 9231 raised the general minimum age for employment to fifteen, with narrow exceptions, so the Code's fourteen is not the operative floor for putting a child to work today. This is the sort of provision where reading the Labor Code on its own gives an answer that is out of date. If a fourteen-year-old is being taken on as an apprentice on the strength of this article, the child-labour rules are the ones to check first.
Educational requirements come from elsewhere
The article adds that trade and industry associations may recommend to the Secretary of Labor appropriate educational requirements for different occupations. So schooling is not a statutory qualification — the Code itself asks for aptitude and comprehension, not a diploma — but occupation-specific requirements can be layered on through that route. If a programme turns you away on educational grounds, the requirement is coming from the occupation's own rules rather than from this provision, and it is fair to ask which issuance it rests on.
What the qualifications are for
The list is short because apprenticeship is training, and the qualifications describe what a person needs in order to be trained safely and usefully: enough maturity, enough aptitude for the trade, and enough comprehension to follow instruction. Notice what is not required — prior experience in the occupation. An apprentice who is being asked to perform skilled production work from the first day, without instruction, is not in the arrangement the article contemplates, whatever the agreement is titled.