Villagers take a really long time to become masters in building when all they can do is 'fixing the hut'. Unless they start themselves off building (through inherited skill) I don't bother with building.

I'll pick a few boys as doctors and use them to cure sick villagers; when they get to 14 they can start studying the plants to become adepts and then masters in due course. They can then study to become master scientists and then master farmers to become Elders.

All other villagers will start as scientists. Once they've become masters I'll move the girls onto parenting and the boys to farming. The girls can fairly quickly become master parents when the population is maxed out; they don't have to keep spending two years out nursing a baby. Once they have become master parents I'll switch them to farming to become Elders.

That means that I get a lot more female Elders than males, alas. For that reason I'll try to use a (male) villager who is a master scientist and farmer to bang the gong. Quite often he'll be lucky and be granted knowledge in another skill, making him an Elder at a stroke.