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 27 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 550 433 504
Rank change year-on-year -117 +71 +82
Contract jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification 37 46 41
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.092% 0.19% 0.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.28% 0.60% 0.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 35 32
10th Percentile £351 £310 £350
25th Percentile £362 £371 £484
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.11% -18.18% +10.00%
75th Percentile £500 £538 £580
90th Percentile £586 £575 £609
UK median daily rate £445 £450 £550
% change year-on-year -1.11% -18.18% +12.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile £28.75 - -
25th Percentile £34.38 - £31.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 - £32.50
75th Percentile £56.88 - £33.75
90th Percentile £63.25 - -
UK median hourly rate £45.00 - £32.50
% change year-on-year - - -37.50%

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 13,087 7,662 11,658
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.69% 31.31% 31.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,790 4,870 7,163
10th Percentile £342 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £518 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -1.43% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 982 440 983
10th Percentile £17.10 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £23.38 £18.07
Median hourly rate £47.50 £47.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.32% +19.13% -23.81%
75th Percentile £71.50 £67.63 £62.48
90th Percentile £85.40 £81.42 £77.40
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £42.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +11.76% +6.25% -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 27 April 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 27 April 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 27 April 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 -82 13 £500 +2.56% 2
West Midlands -53 8 £450 -5.43%
Midlands -54 8 £450 -5.43% 1
London -65 8 £445 +8.14% 2
South West -27 4 £375 +19.05% 1
East of England - 3 £72 -
Yorkshire -63 1 £350 -
North of England -64 1 £350 -3.45%
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 3 (8.11%) WebLogic
2 2 (5.41%) Confluence
3 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 2 (5.41%) Maximo
2 1 (2.70%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 13 (35.14%) Azure
2 10 (27.03%) Azure DevOps
3 4 (10.81%) Tricentis Tosca
4 3 (8.11%) AWS
5 2 (5.41%) GCP
6 1 (2.70%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 2 (5.41%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.41%) Relational Database
2 1 (2.70%) BigQuery
2 1 (2.70%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
2 1 (2.70%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.70%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (2.70%) SAP BW
2 1 (2.70%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.70%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 15 (40.54%) JIRA
2 6 (16.22%) Selenium
3 5 (13.51%) Cypress.io
4 4 (10.81%) TestRail
5 3 (8.11%) Git
5 3 (8.11%) JMeter
5 3 (8.11%) NUnit
5 3 (8.11%) Postman
5 3 (8.11%) Toad
5 3 (8.11%) Zephyr
6 2 (5.41%) Appium
6 2 (5.41%) GitLab
6 2 (5.41%) Jenkins
6 2 (5.41%) JUnit
7 1 (2.70%) Cucumber
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 11 (29.73%) Analytical Skills
2 9 (24.32%) Social Skills
3 5 (13.51%) Finance
4 4 (10.81%) Banking
5 2 (5.41%) Public Sector
6 1 (2.70%) Automotive
6 1 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (2.70%) Law
6 1 (2.70%) Manufacturing
6 1 (2.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 16 (43.24%) Analyst
2 15 (40.54%) Test Analyst
3 6 (16.22%) Tester
4 5 (13.51%) Infrastructure Analyst
4 5 (13.51%) Infrastructure Test Analyst
4 5 (13.51%) Lead
4 5 (13.51%) Senior
4 5 (13.51%) Test Leader
5 4 (10.81%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
5 4 (10.81%) Software Engineer
6 3 (8.11%) Automation Tester
6 3 (8.11%) SAP Analyst
6 3 (8.11%) SAP Test Analyst
6 3 (8.11%) Senior Automation Tester
6 3 (8.11%) Senior Tester
7 2 (5.41%) Principal Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Principal Software Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) SC Cleared Test Analyst
7 2 (5.41%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (13.51%) XML
2 4 (10.81%) Playwright
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%) SAP Fiori
5 1 (2.70%) Web Services
5 1 (2.70%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 3 (8.11%) Embedded Systems
2 1 (2.70%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (2.70%) Data Centre
2 1 (2.70%) Mobile App
2 1 (2.70%) PMI
2 1 (2.70%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 10 (27.03%) Windows
2 6 (16.22%) Linux
3 1 (2.70%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (67.57%) Agile
2 21 (56.76%) Test Automation
3 14 (37.84%) Software Testing
4 13 (35.14%) DevOps
5 11 (29.73%) Defect Management
6 10 (27.03%) CI/CD
6 10 (27.03%) Test Management
6 10 (27.03%) Test Scripting
7 8 (21.62%) Problem-Solving
7 8 (21.62%) SDLC
7 8 (21.62%) User Acceptance Testing
8 7 (18.92%) Scaled Agile Framework
8 7 (18.92%) Software Engineering
8 7 (18.92%) System Integration Testing
8 7 (18.92%) Test Strategy
9 6 (16.22%) Acceptance Criteria
9 6 (16.22%) Continuous Improvement
10 5 (13.51%) End-to-End Testing
10 5 (13.51%) Non-Functional Testing
10 5 (13.51%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 14 (37.84%) SQL
2 9 (24.32%) Python
3 8 (21.62%) Java
4 4 (10.81%) JavaScript
4 4 (10.81%) VB
5 3 (8.11%) C++
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%) ISEB
5 6 (16.22%) DV Cleared
6 4 (10.81%) Degree
7 3 (8.11%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (8.11%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 2 (5.41%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (2.70%) Azure Certification
9 1 (2.70%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (2.70%) IIBA
9 1 (2.70%) Master's Degree
9 1 (2.70%) PMI Certification
9 1 (2.70%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (27.03%) QA
2 2 (5.41%) SLA
3 1 (2.70%) Accessibility
3 1 (2.70%) ISO 15022
3 1 (2.70%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 2 (5.41%) Docker
2 1 (2.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (13.51%) HP ALM
2 4 (10.81%) Kubernetes
3 2 (5.41%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 6 (16.22%) Oracle
1 6 (16.22%) SAP
2 5 (13.51%) HP
3 3 (8.11%) Microsoft
3 3 (8.11%) webMethods
4 2 (5.41%) IBM
5 1 (2.70%) Actian
5 1 (2.70%) Citrix
5 1 (2.70%) Remedy
5 1 (2.70%) Sage
5 1 (2.70%) Salesforce