ISTQB Contracts in the North West

International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 109 - 132
Rank change year-on-year - - +18
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 11 0 25
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 0.56% - 0.78%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.56% - 2.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 0 18
10th Percentile £438 - £300
25th Percentile £463 - £315
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 - £363
75th Percentile £488 - £431
90th Percentile £519 - £515
England median daily rate £450 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -14.29% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £81.75 - -
Median hourly rate £83.50 - -
75th Percentile £85.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £83.50 £26.50 £63.50
% change year-on-year +215.09% -58.27% +44.48%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North West

ISTQB 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 the North West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 706 829 1,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.87% 30.09% 31.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 404 474 683
10th Percentile £230 £268 £325
25th Percentile £398 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £513 £520
Median % change year-on-year -3.66% -1.44% +4.00%
75th Percentile £575 £650 £602
90th Percentile £650 £725 £700
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 124 67
10th Percentile £17.70 £10.95 £20.00
25th Percentile £25.26 £11.77 £25.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £16.06 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +102.37% -57.17% -5.60%
75th Percentile £60.00 £39.54 £49.52
90th Percentile £83.13 £62.50 £66.13
England median hourly rate £45.00 £40.00 £52.40
% change year-on-year +12.50% -23.66% +39.73%

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing ISTQB as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for ISTQB in the North West

ISTQB
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

Daily rate trend for ISTQB in the North West

ISTQB
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

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

Hourly rate trend for ISTQB in the North West

ISTQB
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the North West region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
Manchester - 8 £475 - 2
Lancashire - 2 £483 - 3
Cheshire - 1 - - 1
ISTQB
England

ISTQB
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West 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 2 (18.18%) Apache
Business Applications
1 2 (18.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 2 (18.18%) Power Automate
Development Applications
1 6 (54.55%) Selenium
2 4 (36.36%) JMeter
2 4 (36.36%) LoadRunner
3 2 (18.18%) Cucumber
3 2 (18.18%) Eclipse
3 2 (18.18%) GitLab
3 2 (18.18%) Maven
4 1 (9.09%) JIRA
4 1 (9.09%) Zephyr
General
1 8 (72.73%) Analytical Skills
1 8 (72.73%) Social Skills
2 2 (18.18%) Banking
2 2 (18.18%) Investment Banking
3 1 (9.09%) Finance
3 1 (9.09%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 5 (45.45%) Test Manager
2 4 (36.36%) Software Tester
2 4 (36.36%) Tester
3 2 (18.18%) Lead
4 1 (9.09%) Contracts Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (18.18%) Apache POI
1 2 (18.18%) JDBC
Miscellaneous
1 1 (9.09%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (63.64%) Software Testing
1 7 (63.64%) Test Automation
1 7 (63.64%) Test Strategy
2 6 (54.55%) Manual Testing
2 6 (54.55%) User Acceptance Testing
3 5 (45.45%) System Integration Testing
4 4 (36.36%) CI/CD
4 4 (36.36%) Data Validation
4 4 (36.36%) DevOps
4 4 (36.36%) End-to-End Testing
4 4 (36.36%) Integration Testing
4 4 (36.36%) Performance Testing
4 4 (36.36%) Process Improvement
4 4 (36.36%) System Testing
4 4 (36.36%) Validation
5 3 (27.27%) Agile
5 3 (27.27%) Test Management
6 2 (18.18%) Defect Management
6 2 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
6 2 (18.18%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 4 (36.36%) SQL
2 2 (18.18%) Java
Qualifications
1 3 (27.27%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
2 2 (18.18%) SC Cleared
2 2 (18.18%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (9.09%) QA
Systems Management
1 1 (9.09%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 2 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 1 (9.09%) HP
2 1 (9.09%) Virgin Media