International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 462 500 457
Rank change year-on-year +38 -43 +3
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 136 224 453
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.31% 0.37% 0.51%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.02% 1.37% 2.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 172 336
10th Percentile £348 £309 £341
25th Percentile £400 £400 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £498 £450
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% +10.56% +11.80%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £518
90th Percentile £658 £619 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £506 £455 £432
% change year-on-year +11.37% +5.22% +8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 5
10th Percentile - £53.55 £19.65
25th Percentile £19.25 £55.88 £25.50
Median hourly rate £26.50 £63.50 £43.95
Median % change year-on-year -58.27% +44.48% -20.09%
75th Percentile £39.06 £74.88 £49.50
90th Percentile £48.63 £79.45 £52.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.50 £75.00 £49.50
% change year-on-year -64.67% +51.52% -10.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

ISTQB is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,270 16,337 19,076
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.65% 27.32% 21.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,165 10,899 12,575
10th Percentile £300 £325 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% +4.76% +8.25%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £625
90th Percentile £738 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £530 £500
% change year-on-year - +6.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,067 858 776
10th Percentile £13.86 £15.25 £13.46
25th Percentile £17.80 £20.06 £19.33
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.00 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +30.12% +5.06%
75th Percentile £61.60 £68.25 £56.31
90th Percentile £75.25 £80.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.28 £50.00 £31.89
% change year-on-year -19.45% +56.79% -14.39%

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing ISTQB as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing ISTQB.

Daily rate trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing ISTQB.

Hourly rate trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing ISTQB over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +43 114 £538 +8.86% 40
UK excluding London +25 83 £506 +11.37% 26
Work from Home +120 66 £500 +11.11% 17
London +74 41 £550 +5.77% 15
South East +30 36 £550 +4.76% 10
Midlands +9 18 £400 -4.76% 4
West Midlands +24 11 £400 -5.88% 4
South West +21 11 £450 -18.18% 4
Scotland +34 7 £425 -20.93% 2
East Midlands +12 7 £500 +110.53%
North of England +5 4 £415 +3.75% 4
East of England +11 3 £438 -12.50% 2
North East - 3 £410 -
Isle of Man - 2 £388 -
Wales +16 1 £210 -
Yorkshire +14 1 £675 +22.73% 1
Northern Ireland - 1 £520 -

ISTQB
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 10 (7.35%) Confluence
2 1 (0.74%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.74%) Appian
2 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.74%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.74%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 3 (2.21%) Windchill
2 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (2.21%) ENOVIA
1 3 (2.21%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.47%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.74%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 19 (13.97%) Azure
1 19 (13.97%) Azure DevOps
2 10 (7.35%) AWS
3 5 (3.68%) SaaS
4 4 (2.94%) PaaS
5 2 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (1.47%) IaaS
5 2 (1.47%) OCI
5 2 (1.47%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.74%) Boomi
6 1 (0.74%) BrowserStack
6 1 (0.74%) dbt
6 1 (0.74%) Miro
6 1 (0.74%) Sauce Labs
6 1 (0.74%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 2 (1.47%) Internet
1 2 (1.47%) TCP/IP
2 1 (0.74%) Firewall
2 1 (0.74%) SD-WAN
2 1 (0.74%) WAN
2 1 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (8.82%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.21%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.47%) Oracle BI EE
3 2 (1.47%) Oracle Database
3 2 (1.47%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.74%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 33 (24.26%) TestRail
2 31 (22.79%) JIRA
3 21 (15.44%) Selenium
4 12 (8.82%) Cucumber
5 10 (7.35%) Jenkins
6 9 (6.62%) Git
6 9 (6.62%) JMeter
6 9 (6.62%) JUnit
7 6 (4.41%) TestNG
8 5 (3.68%) REST Assured
8 5 (3.68%) SpecFlow
8 5 (3.68%) Visual Studio
9 4 (2.94%) Appium
9 4 (2.94%) FitNesse
10 3 (2.21%) Cypress.io
10 3 (2.21%) LoadRunner
10 3 (2.21%) SoapUI
10 3 (2.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 3 (2.21%) Subversion
11 2 (1.47%) Zephyr
General
1 43 (31.62%) Social Skills
2 31 (22.79%) Finance
3 20 (14.71%) Public Sector
4 17 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (5.88%) Telecoms
6 5 (3.68%) Banking
6 5 (3.68%) Electronics
6 5 (3.68%) Marketing
7 4 (2.94%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.21%) Back Office
8 3 (2.21%) Front Office
8 3 (2.21%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.47%) Automotive
9 2 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.47%) German Language
9 2 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.47%) Legal
9 2 (1.47%) Military
9 2 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.47%) Retail
Job Titles
1 51 (37.50%) Analyst
2 45 (33.09%) Test Analyst
3 26 (19.12%) Test Manager
4 22 (16.18%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
5 17 (12.50%) Test Engineer
6 12 (8.82%) Senior
6 12 (8.82%) Tester
7 9 (6.62%) Lead
8 7 (5.15%) Architect
8 7 (5.15%) Test Architect
8 7 (5.15%) Test Leader
9 6 (4.41%) QA Analyst
10 5 (3.68%) Functional Analyst
10 5 (3.68%) Functional Test Analyst
10 5 (3.68%) QA Engineer
10 5 (3.68%) QA Tester
10 5 (3.68%) Senior Architect
10 5 (3.68%) Senior Test Architect
11 4 (2.94%) Test Automation Engineer
11 4 (2.94%) Test Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.94%) .NET
1 4 (2.94%) REST
1 4 (2.94%) XML
2 3 (2.21%) Playwright
2 3 (2.21%) Web Services
3 2 (1.47%) HTML
3 2 (1.47%) SOAP
4 1 (0.74%) .NET Framework
4 1 (0.74%) CSS
4 1 (0.74%) Flash
4 1 (0.74%) HTML5
4 1 (0.74%) JSON
4 1 (0.74%) Middleware
4 1 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 5 (3.68%) Management Information System
2 4 (2.94%) Mobile App
3 3 (2.21%) Virtual Team
4 2 (1.47%) Algorithms
4 2 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (1.47%) Client/Server
4 2 (1.47%) Mainframe
4 2 (1.47%) NHS
4 2 (1.47%) Product Ownership
5 1 (0.74%) Digital Media
5 1 (0.74%) Digital TV
5 1 (0.74%) DTCC
5 1 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
5 1 (0.74%) IVR
5 1 (0.74%) Legacy Applications
5 1 (0.74%) Life Science
5 1 (0.74%) PMI
5 1 (0.74%) Reference Data
5 1 (0.74%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 11 (8.09%) Linux
2 7 (5.15%) Unix
3 5 (3.68%) Windows
4 2 (1.47%) Android
4 2 (1.47%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.47%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (49.26%) Test Automation
2 63 (46.32%) Agile
3 54 (39.71%) Test Management
4 48 (35.29%) Software Testing
5 44 (32.35%) Test Strategy
6 32 (23.53%) Continuous Integration
7 30 (22.06%) Problem-Solving
8 28 (20.59%) Test Scripting
9 27 (19.85%) Defect Management
10 25 (18.38%) End-to-End Testing
11 23 (16.91%) DevOps
11 23 (16.91%) User Acceptance Testing
12 21 (15.44%) Functional Testing
13 20 (14.71%) Integration Testing
14 18 (13.24%) Project Management
15 17 (12.50%) CI/CD
16 16 (11.76%) Test Planning
17 15 (11.03%) Performance Testing
17 15 (11.03%) Scaled Agile Framework
18 14 (10.29%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 20 (14.71%) SQL
2 17 (12.50%) Python
3 13 (9.56%) C#
4 12 (8.82%) Java
5 10 (7.35%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.94%) Shell Script
6 4 (2.94%) TypeScript
7 3 (2.21%) C++
8 2 (1.47%) Kotlin
8 2 (1.47%) Swift
8 2 (1.47%) VBA
8 2 (1.47%) VBScript
9 1 (0.74%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 61 (44.85%) Security Cleared
2 49 (36.03%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 30 (22.06%) DV Cleared
4 29 (21.32%) ISEB
5 27 (19.85%) SC Cleared
6 23 (16.91%) Degree
7 12 (8.82%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 8 (5.88%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (2.94%) PMI Certification
10 3 (2.21%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (2.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 3 (2.21%) Master's Degree
10 3 (2.21%) PMP
11 2 (1.47%) CTC Cleared
11 2 (1.47%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (37.50%) QA
2 3 (2.21%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.47%) Def Stans
3 2 (1.47%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.74%) HL7
4 1 (0.74%) MiFID
System Software
1 3 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (0.74%) Docker
2 1 (0.74%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (4.41%) HP ALM
2 2 (1.47%) HP Quality Center
3 1 (0.74%) Ansible
Vendors
1 19 (13.97%) Oracle
2 9 (6.62%) SAP
3 6 (4.41%) HP
3 6 (4.41%) Microsoft
4 5 (3.68%) ServiceNow
5 3 (2.21%) BT
5 3 (2.21%) PTC
5 3 (2.21%) Siemens
6 1 (0.74%) Adobe
6 1 (0.74%) Ariba
6 1 (0.74%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.74%) Citrix
6 1 (0.74%) Dell
6 1 (0.74%) Genesys
6 1 (0.74%) Guidewire
6 1 (0.74%) Perfecto Mobile
6 1 (0.74%) ScienceLogic
6 1 (0.74%) Workday