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 18 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 548 442 500
Rank change year-on-year -106 +58 +90
Contract jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification 37 45 37
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.090% 0.18% 0.10%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.28% 0.58% 0.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 35 30
10th Percentile £345 £307 £350
25th Percentile £399 £361 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -18.18% +4.76%
75th Percentile £525 £510 £575
90th Percentile £593 £575 £610
UK median daily rate £463 £450 £550
% change year-on-year +2.78% -18.18% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
10th Percentile £32.50 - -
25th Percentile £43.75 - -
Median hourly rate £65.00 - -
75th Percentile £70.75 - -
90th Percentile £72.70 - -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 - -

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 13,125 7,700 11,256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.03% 31.47% 30.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,829 4,907 6,959
10th Percentile £350 £285 £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 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £533
% change year-on-year - -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 956 438 971
10th Percentile £17.03 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £17.94
Median hourly rate £50.50 £39.66 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.33% -0.85% -23.81%
75th Percentile £73.40 £67.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.50 £81.35 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £37.25 £40.00
% change year-on-year +34.23% -6.88% -25.93%

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 18 May 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 18 May 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 18 May 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 -81 12 £500 +11.11% 3
South West -18 8 £375 +19.05% 3
West Midlands -53 6 £450 -5.43%
Midlands -59 6 £450 -5.43%
London -55 5 £445 +8.14%
East of England -26 4 £72 -76.96% 2
North of England -75 1 £350 -3.45%
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 (2.70%) Confluence
1 1 (2.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (10.81%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (10.81%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (10.81%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (5.41%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 11 (29.73%) Azure
2 9 (24.32%) Azure DevOps
3 3 (8.11%) AWS
4 1 (2.70%) GCP
4 1 (2.70%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.70%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.41%) Relational Database
2 1 (2.70%) BigQuery
2 1 (2.70%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.70%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (2.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 10 (27.03%) JIRA
2 6 (16.22%) Postman
3 5 (13.51%) Cucumber
4 4 (10.81%) REST Assured
4 4 (10.81%) Selenium
5 3 (8.11%) Git
5 3 (8.11%) JMeter
5 3 (8.11%) NUnit
5 3 (8.11%) TestRail
5 3 (8.11%) Zephyr
6 2 (5.41%) Cypress.io
6 2 (5.41%) GitLab
6 2 (5.41%) Jenkins
6 2 (5.41%) JUnit
7 1 (2.70%) Appium
7 1 (2.70%) Gatling
7 1 (2.70%) LoadRunner
7 1 (2.70%) Robot Framework
7 1 (2.70%) SoapUI
7 1 (2.70%) Visual Studio
General
1 12 (32.43%) Analytical Skills
1 12 (32.43%) Social Skills
2 4 (10.81%) Banking
2 4 (10.81%) Finance
3 3 (8.11%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.70%) Automotive
4 1 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
4 1 (2.70%) Law
4 1 (2.70%) Manufacturing
4 1 (2.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 14 (37.84%) Analyst
2 12 (32.43%) Test Analyst
3 6 (16.22%) Test Engineer
3 6 (16.22%) Tester
4 5 (13.51%) Infrastructure Analyst
4 5 (13.51%) Infrastructure Test Analyst
4 5 (13.51%) Software Engineer
5 4 (10.81%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
5 4 (10.81%) Salesforce Engineer
5 4 (10.81%) Senior
6 3 (8.11%) Lead
6 3 (8.11%) Principal Engineer
6 3 (8.11%) Principal Software Engineer
6 3 (8.11%) Test Leader
7 2 (5.41%) Automation Tester
7 2 (5.41%) Business Analyst
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Automation Tester
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Software Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Tester
7 2 (5.41%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (18.92%) Playwright
2 4 (10.81%) React
3 3 (8.11%) ADO
4 2 (5.41%) Flask
4 2 (5.41%) pytest
5 1 (2.70%) .NET
5 1 (2.70%) .NET Framework
5 1 (2.70%) ebXML
5 1 (2.70%) Gherkin
5 1 (2.70%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 4 (10.81%) Embedded Systems
1 4 (10.81%) Enterprise Software
2 2 (5.41%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (2.70%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (2.70%) Data Centre
3 1 (2.70%) PKI
3 1 (2.70%) PMI
3 1 (2.70%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 8 (21.62%) Windows
2 7 (18.92%) Linux
3 1 (2.70%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (78.38%) Agile
2 19 (51.35%) Software Testing
2 19 (51.35%) Test Automation
3 16 (43.24%) DevOps
4 13 (35.14%) CI/CD
5 12 (32.43%) Test Scripting
5 12 (32.43%) User Acceptance Testing
6 11 (29.73%) Test Management
7 10 (27.03%) Continuous Integration
8 9 (24.32%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (24.32%) Problem-Solving
8 9 (24.32%) Scaled Agile Framework
9 8 (21.62%) Defect Management
9 8 (21.62%) Mentoring
9 8 (21.62%) Non-Functional Testing
10 7 (18.92%) Scrum
10 7 (18.92%) SDLC
10 7 (18.92%) Software Engineering
11 6 (16.22%) Functional Testing
11 6 (16.22%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 9 (24.32%) Python
1 9 (24.32%) SQL
2 8 (21.62%) Java
3 6 (16.22%) JavaScript
4 4 (10.81%) Apex Code
4 4 (10.81%) C++
4 4 (10.81%) VB
5 3 (8.11%) PL/SQL
6 1 (2.70%) C
6 1 (2.70%) C#
6 1 (2.70%) VB6
Qualifications
1 37 (100.00%) ISTQB
2 18 (48.65%) Security Cleared
3 10 (27.03%) SC Cleared
4 7 (18.92%) Degree
4 7 (18.92%) DV Cleared
5 4 (10.81%) ISEB
6 3 (8.11%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 2 (5.41%) IIBA
7 2 (5.41%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 1 (2.70%) Azure Certification
8 1 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (2.70%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (21.62%) QA
2 2 (5.41%) ISO 15022
2 2 (5.41%) ISO 20022
2 2 (5.41%) SLA
3 1 (2.70%) Accessibility
System Software
1 2 (5.41%) Docker
2 1 (2.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 4 (10.81%) HP ALM
2 3 (8.11%) Kubernetes
3 2 (5.41%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 5 (13.51%) Salesforce
2 4 (10.81%) Conga
2 4 (10.81%) GoCardless
2 4 (10.81%) HP
2 4 (10.81%) Oracle
3 3 (8.11%) Microsoft
4 2 (5.41%) IBM
4 2 (5.41%) SAP
5 1 (2.70%) Actian
5 1 (2.70%) Citrix
5 1 (2.70%) Remedy
5 1 (2.70%) Sage