Your managing director has approved a training line for five marketers and two sales leads, and most per-seat prices you find online are for self-paced courses, many of them priced in US dollars. Before the budget meeting, you have to decide whether to book a private team course or buy individual places, and at what cost per head.
Our price for a private B2B marketing or LinkedIn course is from £1,200 for half a day for up to six people, and £1,800 for a full day, excluding VAT. A private course usually costs less per seat than individual places once most of the group needs the same skills. Our social selling training for sales teams runs the full day, and VAT-registered businesses can reclaim the VAT, so the ex-VAT figure is the real cost, as HM Revenue & Customs’ Charge, reclaim and record VAT (May 2022) sets out.
Cost per seat for a B2B marketing training course is the total price divided by the number of people it trains, taken excluding VAT when your business can reclaim it. This guide is for marketing directors at UK B2B companies budgeting team training from a marketing budget, or one shared with HR learning and development. We sell private social media and LinkedIn training, so we gain when you book a private course, and we say plainly where individual places are the better buy.
A per-head price is easier to judge next to what one trained group went on to report, so take one: we trained key senior personnel at Huthwaite International, the sales training business, in strategic social media management and thought leadership content marketing, the approach we set out in our guide to what content marketing is and what works for UK businesses. The Huthwaite International social media case study reports 55 Tier 1 leads generated through stakeholder profiling and £100,000+ in business lead conversions. Those figures are the client’s, from one senior group, so build your own per-head case from your own team’s numbers.
How much do UK employers spend on training per employee?
UK employers spent £1,700 per employee on training in 2024, down from £1,960 in 2022, according to the Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey (July 2025). The Department for Education’s full survey report (November 2025) put employers’ training investment at around £2,710 per person trained, down from £3,250 in 2022, a higher figure because the Department for Education / Skills England’s Employer Skills Survey (November 2025) report divides the spend among only the staff who were trained rather than the whole workforce. Both averages cover all the training a UK employer pays for across a year, so treat them as a yearly reference point for all training per head when you set a budget for one course.
The same survey found total UK training expenditure fell to £53.0bn in 2024 from £59.0bn in 2022, in 2024 prices, while the share of employees trained rose to 63% from 60%, so employers are spreading less money across more people. For comparison, a half day of our private social selling course for sales teams is from £1,200 for up to six people, about £200 a head excluding VAT, and that is one course, not a year of training. Write the employer per-employee benchmark into your budget paper beside each quote, and compare UK delivery options on our training formats, levels and prices page.
What does a private B2B social media or LinkedIn course cost per head?
Social Media Training’s published price list puts a private half day for up to six people at about £200 a head excluding VAT, because the fee is charged per course and everyone in the room shares it. Our price starts from £1,200 for half a day, so the per-head figure rises as the group shrinks, to £300 each for four people and £400 each for three. A full day of LinkedIn or social selling training for a B2B sales team costs £1,800 for up to six people excluding VAT, or £300 a head with a full group, delivered at your offices anywhere in the UK, at our Leeds studio or live online.
The half day is the morning plus one afternoon block, and covers who your team is selling to, rebuilt profiles, a working target list and first messages read out and rewritten, the kind of messages we describe in our guide to getting B2B leads from LinkedIn messages without spam. The full day adds the rest of the afternoon, with Sales Navigator for teams that have it and a session on working the follow-up. The full day, priced on our social selling course page, costs £600 more than the half day, and its afternoon includes a Sales Navigator block for sellers who hold licences.
Kian Scott-Loach, Head of Digital at Terrence Higgins Trust, said of our trainers: “We were impressed by their depth of knowledge in a rapidly changing environment.” On a private course that knowledge is applied to your own profiles, lists and messages rather than a recorded example.
If one or two sellers only want a certificate, our own social selling page says LinkedIn Learning and the platform academies do that cheaply and well. For a team, send your headcount and each person’s level, and see the same pricing for marketing teams on our B2B social media training for long sales cycles page.
Is a private team course cheaper per head than buying individual places?
A private team course is usually cheaper per head than individual places once enough people share its fixed fee, and the Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey report (November 2025) points the same way on scale: employers with 2 to 4 staff spent £6,260 per trainee, around 4 times the £1,550 spent by employers with 100 or more staff. The report suggests economies of scale may explain that gap, yet it compares employers by size and never tests private courses against public ones, so treat it as a hint rather than proof. From £1,200 for half a day, a Social Media Training private session works out at £200 a head for six people, £300 for four and £600 for two, excluding VAT.
Those per-head figures give you a break-even line to hold against any public course you are quoted: for four people, a private half day wins whenever one public place, plus travel and time out of the office, costs more than £300 excluding VAT, and for two people the line rises to £600. Our £1,800 full day for up to six, priced on our B2B social media training page, works out at £450 a head for four and £300 for six, so get a written ex-VAT price for the specific course you are considering, set it against the line for your headcount, then score your team below.
Private course or individual places: a per-head scorecard
| Criterion | Scores nothing | Scores one | Scores two |
|---|---|---|---|
| People who need the same skill | One or two | Three or four | Five or six |
| Shared accounts, pages or target list to work on | None | Some overlap | The whole group works on the same accounts |
| Commercially sensitive material, such as pipeline or client names | None | Some | Central to the work |
| Travel and time out needed for a public venue | Venue close by | Some travel, or a live online public course is available | A full day or an overnight stay |
| Spread of levels in the group | One level that a public course matches | Two levels | A wide spread needing separate sessions |
| Individual certificates | Every person needs one | Useful for some people | Nobody needs one |
Add the six scores and read the total against these bands:
- Nine to twelve: book a private course.
- Five to eight: get both quotes and compare per head excluding VAT.
- Nought to four: buy individual places or self-paced learning.
Score your team before you request any quote, and include the total in your brief. For a private half day at the price on our training formats, levels and prices page with two people that is £600 a head, and for one person the full £1,200, which is poor value, even from us.
How can one private booking train a large team at different levels?
The Bango case study on our site shows how to train a large mixed-level team: before the course in February and March 2024, we surveyed 53 Bango staff and found 62% were not sure what to post, 51% were not comfortable with analytics and 38% posted less than monthly. Those answers split the team into two rooms of up to three hours each, with the wider team going to a LinkedIn for individuals session and the marketing team going to a LinkedIn for marketing teams session, as our Bango case study records. Bango, the payments technology business, got two sessions pitched at two levels, and each person went to the room that matched their role.
Our published price, from £1,200 for half a day, covers up to six people, so for larger groups we give a per-head quote. Splitting by level also works across borders: for Verve in 2022 we invited 45 staff across 4 countries to two recorded 90-minute masterclass sessions, then ran one-to-one sessions with their subject experts in September 2022. Before you ask for a quote, survey your own staff on posting and analytics, then send us the headcount at each level.
Is VAT charged on marketing training courses in the UK?
VAT is usually charged on marketing training from a commercial provider, because HMRC’s guidance on education and vocational training (January 2025) says a provider run with a view to making and distributing profits is unlikely to be an eligible body, according to HM Revenue & Customs’ Education and vocational training (VAT Notice 701/30) (January 2025). The same HMRC guidance exempts supplies of education and vocational training from VAT when an eligible body, other than a private school, supplies them. HMRC’s separate guidance on reclaiming VAT, Charge, reclaim and record VAT (May 2022), says a VAT-registered business can reclaim VAT on items it buys for use in the business, so for most B2B firms the real cost of a course is its price excluding VAT.
Social Media Training’s published course prices exclude VAT, so ask every provider for ex-VAT prices in writing and check with finance that your organisation can reclaim in full. If it cannot, compare VAT-inclusive totals per head instead.
How should you budget and book team training over four weeks?
Plan team training over four weeks, with every quote compared at its ex-VAT price, as the VAT section above and HM Revenue & Customs’ Charge, reclaim and record VAT (May 2022) set out. Week one produces a headcount and a survey, week two turns them into quotes, week three turns the chosen quote into prepared material, and week four is the course with a review booked for ninety days later.
In week one, list everyone who needs the skill by role and level, and send them a short survey modelled on the Bango questions about posting habits and comfort with analytics.
In week two, take that headcount and the survey answers to finance or HR learning and development, and agree a per-head ceiling against the employer benchmark from the Department for Education and Skills England’s Employer Skills Survey (July 2025) in the first section. Get ex-VAT quotes for a private course and for individual places, run the scorecard on the same headcount, and pick one quote.
In week three, ask your sales and marketing leads to send the trainer behind the chosen quote a sample of target accounts, profiles and recent posts. Choose a half day, or a full day if your team holds Sales Navigator licences, because that material is what the room will work on.
In week four, your team works through that material and each person leaves with tasks in the diary and a cadence they can keep up in about twenty minutes a day. Book the ninety-day review before the course runs, because a review booked afterwards rarely happens. When your headcount and levels are clear, contact our team training advisers for a per-head figure.
Where we are not the right fit
A private course suits a group with shared work, so some buyers should spend their budget elsewhere.
- One or two people chasing a personal certificate, which a self-paced platform course such as LinkedIn Learning provides for far less than a private day.
- Consumer brands selling low-value products at volume, where paid social is the better route.
- Teams that want a demonstration of an automation tool, since we teach outreach that reads as though a person wrote it.
- Buyers who cannot reclaim VAT, who should compare VAT-inclusive totals per head and consider an eligible body whose training HMRC’s guidance on education and vocational training, VAT Notice 701/30 (January 2025), exempts from VAT.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a B2B marketing training course cost per seat in the UK?
Our private courses run from £1,200 for half a day for up to six people, which is about £200 to £600 a head excluding VAT depending on how many attend, and £1,800 for a full day. Across all types of training, the Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey report (November 2025) put UK employers’ investment at around £2,710 per person trained.
What should a marketing training budget per employee be?
The Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey (July 2025) found UK employers spent £1,700 per employee on training in 2024, and that 63% of employees received training that year. We suggest treating the employer per-employee benchmark as a yearly reference for all of one person’s training, so a single course should take only a share of it.
Is LinkedIn training for a sales team priced differently from marketing training?
No. Our LinkedIn and social selling training for sales teams uses the same prices as our marketing courses: from £1,200 for half a day and £1,800 for a full day, both for up to six people excluding VAT. The half day is the morning plus one afternoon block, and the full day adds Sales Navigator for teams that hold licences and a session on working the follow-up.
How many people can attend a private half-day training course?
Our published price for a private half day covers up to six people, and the per-head cost is lowest when all six places are filled. For a larger team, we give a per-head quote. On our Bango project we surveyed 53 staff first, then split the LinkedIn training into two sessions by level.
Count your seats before you compare prices
Take one number into that budget meeting with your managing director: how many people need the same skill, which is why we surveyed 53 Bango staff before splitting their LinkedIn training into two sessions by level. Your five marketers and two sales leads make seven, one more than our half-day group of six, and I will tell you whether that means two sessions or a public place for the seventh person. Our other guides are listed on our resources page. Get a per-head quote for your team’s private course through our UK social selling training for sales teams.
Sources
- HM Revenue & Customs, Charge, reclaim and record VAT, May 2022. https://www.gov.uk/charge-reclaim-record-vat/reclaim-vat-business-expenses. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
- Department for Education and Skills England, Employer Skills Survey, July 2025. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/employer-skills-survey/2024. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
- Department for Education / Skills England, Employer Skills Survey 2024, November 2025. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a1eef8d050971fbebf3bd92/Employer_Skills_Survey_2024_UK_report.pdf. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
- HM Revenue & Customs, Education and vocational training (VAT Notice 701/30), January 2025. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-on-education-and-vocational-training-notice-70130. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
