You could always take the approach that I used,
1: Learn German
2: Go to Switzerland
3: Spend the Summer in the Alps on a farm making cheese.
This is what you could call a super-apprenticeship
It helps to grow up in a family/community that speaks a dialect of German like I did
Think a lot about HOW you want to make cheese. Do you want to be modern, slick, scientific, mechanized, etc? Or would you rather be hands-on, simple, and traditional? There are advantages to both ways, and also both ways appeal to a different kind of person.
We do things the old way, because that's where my heart is. A big advantage to me with this is the low cost at startup for this -our vat, for example, is a 40 gallon copper round bottom kettle we had made special for our operations at a cost of $1200, as opposed to the $5000+ you would pay for a similar item out of USDA approved stainless steel. (But, you HAVE to have the traditional approach to get by with copper, otherwise they wont let you have it)
Overall, the best thing you can do before you get started is to amass a good deal of personal experience. Make cheese at home whenever you can, go to classes/courses, etc. and maybe even volunteer/apprentice some labor for a cheesemaker like you said.
Think also of the scale you want to have. Do you want to produce at high volume, gathering from many local farmers, or do you want to run a small-scale operation, with your own cows/goats to supply your needs?