How to Outsource Your Training Material Printing

Outsourcing training material printing means handing the printing, binding, packing and delivery of manuals, workbooks and course packs to a specialist provider. It usually pays off when you train at more than one site, update content between cohorts, or spend L&D time chasing print jobs instead of designing learning. The right provider prints on demand, delivers to each venue or learner, and always works from your latest approved file.

This guide is for L&D, HR and training teams weighing up whether to move print out of the office. It covers what outsourcing includes, how to compare the true cost, what to ask a provider and how to switch without disrupting your training calendar. If you already know what you need, see our training materials printing service.

What does outsourcing training material printing include?

A training print provider can take on some or all of these tasks:

• File checks: preflighting PDFs for bleed, fonts and image resolution before anything is printed.
• Printing and binding: training manuals, workbooks, handouts and ring binders with tabbed dividers.
• Kitting: packing manuals with pens, name badges, certificates or USB sticks into one course pack per learner (kitting and bundling).
• Delivery: sending packs to training venues, offices or learners’ homes, in the UK and abroad.
• Storage: holding a small stock of fixed items such as binders or branded folders (warehousing and fulfilment).
• Digital copies: giving learners secure online access to the same materials.
• Reporting: showing what was ordered, by whom and at what cost.

Signs it’s time to outsource

Outsourcing is worth considering if two or more of these sound familiar:

• You run courses at several locations, or for learners who join remotely.
• Course content changes between cohorts, so printed stock goes out of date.
• Boxes of old manuals end up in recycling after every update.
• Office printers can’t produce the binding, tabs or covers your courses need.
• Coordinators spend hours printing, collating and booking couriers before each course.
• Cohort sizes change at short notice, leaving you with too many or too few packs.
• Print and postage costs are spread across budgets, so nobody knows the true cost per learner.

In-house vs outsourced: what does training print really cost?

The printer’s unit price is only part of the cost. Most of the difference lies in staff time, waste and delivery.

Cost factor	Printing in-house	Outsourcing
Equipment, maintenance and toner	Paid by you	Included in the unit price
Binding, tabs and covers	Limited or manual	Professional finishing included
Staff time to print, collate and pack	Often hidden in L&D and admin hours	Removed or reduced to ordering
Out-of-date stock	High if you print in bulk ahead of time	Low with print on demand
Storage	Office or cupboard space	Not needed, or a small managed stock
Delivery to venues and learners	Booked and packed by your team	Handled by the provider
Rush jobs	Overtime or local print shop	Built into the service

How to work out your true cost per course pack:

(printing + finishing + staff hours × hourly rate + storage + delivery + cost of wasted copies) ÷ number of packs actually used

Run this for one recent course and compare it with a provider’s quote for the same pack, delivered. Including wasted copies and staff hours usually changes the comparison more than the unit price does.

Example: how MCP Consulting Group outsourced its training print

MCP Consulting Group, a UK consulting and training company with 20 employees in Solihull and Reading, used to print, sort and collate every course pack in-house. As its number of courses grew, staff spent hours printing and collating, materials had to be stored on site, and shipping was booked manually.

MCP now uploads its training materials to the Mimeo platform and orders them whenever a course needs them. Mimeo prints, collates and delivers, so there is no internal production work, and MCP can run several courses in a short time while still updating content. The results:

• Hours of manual printing and collation removed
• Staff moved to higher-value work, which also lifted morale
• Professional training materials that are easy to update
• A process that scales with growth; MCP now uses Mimeo for its consultancy work too

Carmen Mills, Technical Training Administration Manager at MCP, sums it up:

“If you want to streamline your business and produce professional training material at a reasonable cost, then we have no hesitation in recommending Mimeo as a service provider.”

Read the full MCP Consulting Group case study →

What to look for in a training manual printing service

The best training print partners combine flexible quantities with reliable delivery and tight control of your files. Use these questions when you compare providers:

What to check	Why it matters	Question to ask
Minimum order	Cohorts vary in size	Can we order a single manual, or only print runs?
Binding and finishing	Training manuals need to lie flat and survive heavy use	Do you offer wire binding, ring binders and printed tab dividers?
Version control	Old versions cause errors and rework	How do you make sure every order uses the latest approved file?
Multi-address delivery	Courses run at several venues	Can one order ship to many addresses, including learners’ homes?
UK and EU delivery	Post-Brexit customs can delay shipments	Where do you print, and how do you deliver to EU sites?
Data security	Course content can be confidential, and delivery lists hold learners’ names and addresses. UK GDPR requires a written contract with any provider that processes them	Do you sign a data processing agreement under UK GDPR? Who can access our files?
Turnaround	Late changes happen	What are your order cut-off and delivery times?
Proofs	Mistakes are costly at volume	Do you provide digital proofs before printing?
Ordering platform	Trainers need to reorder without emailing	Can our trainers order from a catalogue of approved materials?
Reporting	Budgets need a cost per learner	Can we see spend by course, team or cost centre?

For a wider set of questions, see what to look for when selecting an on-demand print vendor.

How to outsource your training print in 6 steps

1. Audit what you print today. List each course’s materials, quantities, venues, how often content changes and what it costs you now.
2. Standardise your formats. Agree a small set of specs, for example A4 manuals with wire binding and A5 quick-reference cards, so every course is ordered the same way.
3. Prepare print-ready files. Export PDFs with bleed and embedded fonts, and put a version number and date in the footer of every document.
4. Choose a provider and run a pilot. Start with one course or one site, compare quality and delivery against your audit, then roll out.
5. Set up ordering and approvals. Give trainers a catalogue of approved materials and decide who can approve new versions.
6. Measure the results. Track cost per learner, delivery times, wasted copies and learner feedback against your audit.

For paper weights, binding types and tab options, see our technical guide to training manual printing.

Delivering training materials to multiple sites and learners

How you deliver depends on where your learners are:

• One venue, one course: a single delivery of boxed packs to the training room.
• Several venues on the same day: one order split across addresses, with each venue’s packs labelled.
• Remote and hybrid learners: individual packs sent to home addresses, plus digital copies for anyone who joins online.
• Courses in the EU: printing inside the EU avoids customs delays for EU venues. Mimeo prints in Berlin as well as the UK; see delivery and shipping to the EU.

Common mistakes when outsourcing training print

• Choosing on unit price alone. Delivery, finishing and wasted copies often cost more than the print itself.
• Ordering a year’s stock up front. One content update can turn the rest into recycling; print closer to each course instead.
• Not locking final files. Without a version number and one person who approves changes, two versions end up in circulation.
• Forgetting lead times for special finishes. Printed tabs, custom binders and kitted packs take longer than standard manuals.
• Leaving out remote learners. Plan home delivery or digital access from the start, not the week before the course.

How Mimeo supports L&D and HR teams

Mimeo prints and delivers training materials for organisations across the UK and internationally:

• Print on demand with no minimum order, so each course gets exactly what it needs, always from the latest file.
• Training formats including wire-bound and coil-bound manuals, ring binders and custom tab dividers.
• UK production in Huntingdon, plus production in Berlin and the US for international courses.
• Kitting, warehousing and multi-address delivery to venues and learners’ homes.
• Secure digital copies through Mimeo Digital, so remote learners get the same materials.
• Specialist training experience, strengthened by Mimeo’s acquisition of KnowledgePoint Print Services, a UK specialist in training materials and learning fulfilment.

Conclusion

Outsourcing training material printing makes sense when your courses run at several sites, change often, or take up L&D time that should go into learning design. Compare providers on the true cost per course pack, not the unit price, and check version control, delivery options and data security before you switch. Start with one course, measure the result, then roll out. Combined with digital copies for remote learners, outsourced print on demand keeps every cohort working from the right materials. Get a quote for training materials printing.

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