ISTQB Foundation Certification Contract Job Trends in England

ISTQB-BCS Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) formerly ISEB Foundation
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for ISTQB Foundation Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 4 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 563 439 516
Rank change year-on-year -124 +77 +81
Contract jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification 36 44 35
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.086% 0.18% 0.095%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.27% 0.58% 0.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 35 28
10th Percentile £340 £310 £350
25th Percentile £394 £356 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -18.18% +4.76%
75th Percentile £556 £504 £582
90th Percentile £598 £538 £610
UK median daily rate £483 £418 £550
% change year-on-year +15.36% -23.96% +9.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 0
10th Percentile £36.25 - -
25th Percentile £53.13 - -
Median hourly rate £69.50 - -
75th Percentile £74.00 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £69.50 - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

ISTQB Foundation 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 England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,302 7,545 11,240
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.84% 31.45% 30.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,925 4,767 6,956
10th Percentile £350 £278 £313
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £742
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £530
% change year-on-year +0.96% -1.89% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,006 450 1,002
10th Percentile £17.87 £17.87 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.35 £18.84
Median hourly rate £48.28 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +48.54% -18.75% -27.27%
75th Percentile £73.46 £65.94 £63.75
90th Percentile £85.36 £81.01 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +53.85% -18.75% -27.27%

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing ISTQB Foundation Certification relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

ISTQB Foundation Certification job vacancy trend in England

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing ISTQB Foundation Certification.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing ISTQB Foundation Certification

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification in England over the 6 months to 4 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB Foundation Certification in England

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing ISTQB Foundation Certification.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing ISTQB Foundation Certification

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification in England over the 6 months to 4 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for ISTQB Foundation Certification in England

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification within the England region over the 6 months to 4 June 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
South East -80 10 £500 +11.11% 3
South West -29 8 £375 +15.38% 2
West Midlands -55 6 £450 +17.78% 1
Midlands -57 6 £450 +17.78% 1
East of England -28 5 £72 -76.96% 2
London -72 5 £445 +8.14%
North of England -73 1 £350 -3.45% 2
Yorkshire - 1 £350 -
ISTQB Foundation Certification
UK

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 (2.78%) Confluence
1 1 (2.78%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (11.11%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (11.11%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (11.11%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (5.56%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 11 (30.56%) Azure
2 9 (25.00%) Azure DevOps
3 3 (8.33%) AWS
4 1 (2.78%) GCP
4 1 (2.78%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.78%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.56%) Relational Database
2 1 (2.78%) BigQuery
2 1 (2.78%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.78%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (2.78%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (30.56%) JIRA
2 6 (16.67%) Postman
3 5 (13.89%) Cucumber
4 4 (11.11%) REST Assured
4 4 (11.11%) Selenium
4 4 (11.11%) TestRail
5 3 (8.33%) Git
5 3 (8.33%) Jenkins
5 3 (8.33%) JMeter
5 3 (8.33%) NUnit
5 3 (8.33%) Zephyr
6 2 (5.56%) Cypress.io
6 2 (5.56%) GitLab
6 2 (5.56%) JUnit
6 2 (5.56%) SoapUI
7 1 (2.78%) Appium
7 1 (2.78%) Gatling
7 1 (2.78%) LoadRunner
7 1 (2.78%) Robot Framework
7 1 (2.78%) Visual Studio
General
1 13 (36.11%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (30.56%) Social Skills
3 4 (11.11%) Banking
3 4 (11.11%) Finance
4 3 (8.33%) Public Sector
5 1 (2.78%) Automotive
5 1 (2.78%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (2.78%) Law
5 1 (2.78%) Manufacturing
5 1 (2.78%) Police
Job Titles
1 11 (30.56%) Analyst
2 9 (25.00%) Test Analyst
3 7 (19.44%) Test Engineer
4 6 (16.67%) Tester
5 5 (13.89%) Senior
5 5 (13.89%) Software Engineer
6 4 (11.11%) Salesforce Engineer
7 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure Analyst
7 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure Test Analyst
7 3 (8.33%) Lead
7 3 (8.33%) Principal Engineer
7 3 (8.33%) Principal Software Engineer
7 3 (8.33%) Test Leader
8 2 (5.56%) Automation Tester
8 2 (5.56%) Senior Automation Tester
8 2 (5.56%) Senior Software Engineer
8 2 (5.56%) Senior Tester
8 2 (5.56%) Software Test Engineer
8 2 (5.56%) Test Manager
8 2 (5.56%) Test Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (19.44%) Playwright
2 4 (11.11%) React
3 3 (8.33%) ADO
4 2 (5.56%) Flask
4 2 (5.56%) pytest
4 2 (5.56%) XML
5 1 (2.78%) .NET
5 1 (2.78%) .NET Framework
5 1 (2.78%) ebXML
5 1 (2.78%) Gherkin
5 1 (2.78%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 5 (13.89%) Embedded Systems
2 4 (11.11%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (5.56%) PKI
3 2 (5.56%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (2.78%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (2.78%) Data Centre
4 1 (2.78%) PMI
4 1 (2.78%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 5 (13.89%) Linux
1 5 (13.89%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (80.56%) Agile
2 20 (55.56%) Software Testing
2 20 (55.56%) Test Automation
3 14 (38.89%) DevOps
4 13 (36.11%) Test Scripting
5 12 (33.33%) User Acceptance Testing
6 10 (27.78%) CI/CD
6 10 (27.78%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (27.78%) Test Management
7 9 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
7 9 (25.00%) SDLC
8 8 (22.22%) Continuous Integration
8 8 (22.22%) Defect Management
8 8 (22.22%) Mentoring
8 8 (22.22%) Scaled Agile Framework
9 7 (19.44%) End-to-End Testing
9 7 (19.44%) Integration Testing
9 7 (19.44%) Non-Functional Testing
9 7 (19.44%) Scrum
9 7 (19.44%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 10 (27.78%) Python
2 8 (22.22%) Java
2 8 (22.22%) SQL
3 6 (16.67%) JavaScript
4 5 (13.89%) C++
5 4 (11.11%) Apex Code
5 4 (11.11%) VB
6 3 (8.33%) PL/SQL
7 1 (2.78%) C
7 1 (2.78%) C#
7 1 (2.78%) VB6
Qualifications
1 36 (100.00%) ISTQB
2 18 (50.00%) Security Cleared
3 11 (30.56%) SC Cleared
4 7 (19.44%) Degree
5 6 (16.67%) DV Cleared
6 4 (11.11%) ISEB
7 3 (8.33%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 2 (5.56%) IIBA
8 2 (5.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (2.78%) Azure Certification
9 1 (2.78%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (2.78%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (22.22%) QA
2 2 (5.56%) ISO 15022
2 2 (5.56%) ISO 20022
2 2 (5.56%) SLA
3 1 (2.78%) Accessibility
System Software
1 2 (5.56%) Docker
2 1 (2.78%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 4 (11.11%) HP ALM
2 3 (8.33%) Kubernetes
3 2 (5.56%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 5 (13.89%) Salesforce
2 4 (11.11%) Conga
2 4 (11.11%) GoCardless
2 4 (11.11%) HP
3 3 (8.33%) Microsoft
3 3 (8.33%) Oracle
4 2 (5.56%) IBM
4 2 (5.56%) SAP
5 1 (2.78%) Actian
5 1 (2.78%) Citrix
5 1 (2.78%) Remedy
5 1 (2.78%) Sage
ISTQB Foundation Certification jobs