diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index eb62d71c4ca6be27ea535da5e68157502fcc6280..4d6c1bb4f2590bcb22ac76a4101f6190e58ab04d 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ stages:
   - build
   - deploy
 
+variables:
+    PIP_CACHE_DIR: "$CI_PROJECT_DIR/.cache/pip"
+
 docs:
   stage: test
   image: davidhrbac/docker-mdcheck:latest
@@ -40,7 +43,15 @@ ext_links:
 mkdocs:
   stage: build
   image: davidhrbac/docker-mkdocscheck:latest
+  cache:
+    paths:
+      - .cache/pip
+      - venv/
   before_script:
+  - python -V               # Print out python version for debugging
+  - pip install virtualenv
+  - virtualenv venv
+  - source venv/bin/activate
   - pip install -r requirements.txt
   script:
   - mkdocs -V