Microsoft Certification Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Microsoft Certification
South East > Berkshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Berkshire with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 25 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 95 123
Rank change year-on-year +4 +28 -14
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 23 3 7
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 1.34% 0.24% 0.35%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.99% 0.70% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 2 6
10th Percentile - - £191
25th Percentile £219 - £284
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £270 £525 £450
Median % change year-on-year -48.57% +16.67% -20.53%
75th Percentile £480 - £663
90th Percentile £580 - £700
South East median daily rate £447 £500 £350
% change year-on-year -10.60% +42.86% -35.48%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Berkshire

Microsoft Certification falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in Berkshire.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 769 431 906
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 44.84% 34.02% 45.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 536 220 461
10th Percentile £255 £250 £205
25th Percentile £350 £400 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +2.44% -6.82%
75th Percentile £538 £650 £615
90th Percentile £625 £685 £675
South East median daily rate £506 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -3.62% -2.78% +1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 28 78
10th Percentile £20.79 £41.25 £41.25
25th Percentile £44.83 £55.87 £51.49
Median hourly rate £81.50 £61.63 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +32.25% +0.04% -5.23%
75th Percentile £95.00 £68.09 £70.50
90th Percentile £98.75 £86.08 £85.65
South East median hourly rate £26.97 £57.87 £58.30
% change year-on-year -53.40% -0.73% +21.99%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft Certification relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

Microsoft Certification job vacancy trend in Berkshire

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in Berkshire over the 6 months to 25 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in Berkshire

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the Berkshire region over the 6 months to 25 February 2026. 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
Wokingham - 12 £238 - 1
Reading +5 8 £480 - 10
Microsoft Certification
South East

Microsoft Certification
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 1 (4.35%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (4.35%) Skype for Business
Business Applications
1 1 (4.35%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 19 (82.61%) Azure
2 15 (65.22%) AWS
3 4 (17.39%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (13.04%) IaaS
4 3 (13.04%) PaaS
4 3 (13.04%) Power Platform
4 3 (13.04%) SaaS
5 2 (8.70%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (8.70%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (4.35%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (4.35%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 14 (60.87%) DNS
2 11 (47.83%) DHCP
2 11 (47.83%) TCP/IP
2 11 (47.83%) VLAN
3 3 (13.04%) Firewall
4 2 (8.70%) Network Security
4 2 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (4.35%) Skype
5 1 (4.35%) Unified Communications
5 1 (4.35%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (8.70%) SQL Server
2 1 (4.35%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (4.35%) Apache Cassandra
2 1 (4.35%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (4.35%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (4.35%) MongoDB
2 1 (4.35%) MySQL
2 1 (4.35%) NoSQL
2 1 (4.35%) Oracle Database
2 1 (4.35%) Oracle Database 12c
2 1 (4.35%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (4.35%) RDBMS
2 1 (4.35%) Relational Database
2 1 (4.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 1 (4.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
General
1 11 (47.83%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (21.74%) Social Skills
3 1 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (4.35%) Finance
3 1 (4.35%) Manufacturing
3 1 (4.35%) Pharmaceutical
3 1 (4.35%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 11 (47.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 11 (47.83%) Infrastructure Support
1 11 (47.83%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
1 11 (47.83%) Support Engineer
2 5 (21.74%) Architect
3 4 (17.39%) Cybersecurity Architect
3 4 (17.39%) Security Architect
3 4 (17.39%) Solutions Architect
4 3 (13.04%) Security Solutions Architect
5 2 (8.70%) 1st Line Service Desk Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) 1st Line Support
5 2 (8.70%) 1st Line Support Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) Consultant
5 2 (8.70%) Service Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) Service Desk Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) Service Desk Support
5 2 (8.70%) Service Desk Support Analyst
6 1 (4.35%) SQL DBA
6 1 (4.35%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.35%) OAuth
1 1 (4.35%) OAuth2
1 1 (4.35%) OpenID
1 1 (4.35%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (47.83%) Analytical Mindset
2 3 (13.04%) Operational Technology
2 3 (13.04%) Replication
2 3 (13.04%) Security Operations Centre
3 2 (8.70%) Legacy Systems
3 2 (8.70%) Video Conferencing
4 1 (4.35%) Clustering
4 1 (4.35%) Life Science
4 1 (4.35%) Private Cloud
4 1 (4.35%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 14 (60.87%) Windows
2 12 (52.17%) Linux
3 2 (8.70%) Windows 10
4 1 (4.35%) Unix
4 1 (4.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (60.87%) Problem-Solving
2 13 (56.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 12 (52.17%) Disaster Recovery
3 12 (52.17%) ITIL
4 11 (47.83%) Preventative Maintenance
4 11 (47.83%) Service Management
4 11 (47.83%) Virtual Infrastructure
5 5 (21.74%) Cybersecurity
6 4 (17.39%) Continuous Improvement
6 4 (17.39%) TOGAF
7 3 (13.04%) Cyber Resilience
7 3 (13.04%) Security Architecture
7 3 (13.04%) Security Monitoring
7 3 (13.04%) Security Operations
8 2 (8.70%) Analytics
8 2 (8.70%) Customer Service
8 2 (8.70%) Data Loss Prevention
8 2 (8.70%) Database Tuning
8 2 (8.70%) Performance Tuning
8 2 (8.70%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (8.70%) PowerShell
1 2 (8.70%) SQL
2 1 (4.35%) Bash
2 1 (4.35%) Python
Qualifications
1 16 (69.57%) Azure Certification
2 11 (47.83%) Network+ Certification
2 11 (47.83%) SC Cleared
2 11 (47.83%) Security Cleared
2 11 (47.83%) Server+ Certification
3 4 (17.39%) CISSP
3 4 (17.39%) Degree
3 4 (17.39%) TOGAF Certification
4 2 (8.70%) OCP
4 2 (8.70%) Oracle Certification
5 1 (4.35%) AWS Certification
5 1 (4.35%) CCNA
5 1 (4.35%) CCNP
5 1 (4.35%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (17.39%) NIST
2 3 (13.04%) GDPR
3 2 (8.70%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (4.35%) NIST 800
4 1 (4.35%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (52.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (47.83%) Hyper-V
3 5 (21.74%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (17.39%) SCCM
2 2 (8.70%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (4.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (4.35%) Oracle RMAN
3 1 (4.35%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 23 (100.00%) Microsoft
2 12 (52.17%) VMware
3 3 (13.04%) Tenable
4 2 (8.70%) CheckPoint
4 2 (8.70%) Fortinet
4 2 (8.70%) Oracle
4 2 (8.70%) ServiceNow
5 1 (4.35%) Cisco
5 1 (4.35%) Polycom
5 1 (4.35%) Wonderware