Last month, the US Department of Labor issued updated guidance for registered apprenticeship programs that aims at reducing sponsor burden, clarifying standards, and improving transparency. Critically, they also committed to final apprenticeship determinations within 30 days. For small employers that need skills but have limited recruiting budgets, this just opened access to a talent source previously accessible, for the most part, to larger organizations. It also is re-opening the buy v build debate for small businesses struggling to find the right talent at the right time.

Buying Talent Is Still Faster, But Comes With Risks.

Despite reports of AI mucking up the recruiting flywheel for candidates and employers alike and slowing down overall time to hire, recruiting for specific skills may still be faster than training in-house. However, with ongoing news reports discrimination lawsuits in recruiting practices, taking a close look at how candidates are sourced and selected is imperative.

But the build-versus-buy debate that has been framed as a culture and values choice is shifting to one of resource allocation. When a small business buys talent, it is not just salary. It is also agency fees, systems and advertising costs, interview time, screening costs, onboarding time, manager attention and the opportunity cost of leaving a role open while the search takes place.

Building Talent Gets a Fresh Look.

SHRM’s 2025 Talent Trends indicate 69% of organizations are struggling to recruit full-time positions, levels that haven’t been seen since 2016. Many are doubling down on training investment, but for existing employees and for redeployment into hard-to-fill or new roles. The investment is typically higher for small employers than larger on a per-employee basis. Training Magazine’s 2025 Report showed that small employers spent 24% more on training than employers overall and a whopping 133% more than companies with 10,000 or more employees. But those numbers start to make more sense when looking at the return. It’s hard to beat the ability to customize development to a specific role, especially when it’s core to the business. Blended learning, a combination of structured training and on the job development allows for knowledge and process transfer and a unique ability to tailor the learning to business operations.

This is where apprenticeships become interesting, especially now that the apprenticeship.gov portal includes more than 1000 occupations. Granted many do not yet have registered apprenticeship programs, but the DOL’s commitment to 30 day reviews significantly lowers the barrier to entry. It gives small employers a more structured way to build talent without pretending development will happen on the fly.

Regardless of Approach, Retention Matters Most.

There is also an opportunity cost to consider from the perspective of employee retention. Nothing’s really changed here and it’s a shame because so much of it is preventable.The 2025 Retention Report by Work Institute cited a lack of career growth and professional development ranks as the reason (18.9% of respondents) why people leave their job. If good employees don’t see an investment in their future or a way to invest in themselves, then they start looking.

Read the full article here.