novitiate

novitiate \noh-VISH-ee-it, -eyt\, noun:

1. the state or period of being a beginner in anything.
2. the state or period of being a novice of a religious order or congregation.
3. the quarters occupied by religious novices during probation.
4. a novice.

Moreover, in carrier training the tests confronted the candidate, the eternal novitiate, in more rapid succession than in any other form of flying.
-- Tom Wolfe, The Purple Decades, 1982

She would study very hard in the Abbé's catechism class from now on, so that her confirmation would be perfect, and so that he would recommend her for the novitiate.
-- Angela Davis-Gardner, Felice, 2007

Novitiate comes from the Medieval Latin word meaning "novice."