ISTQB Contract Job Trends in the South East

International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 16 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

	6 months to 16 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	175	159	138
Rank change year-on-year	-16	-21	+37
Contract jobs citing ISTQB	51	9	39
As % of all contract jobs in the South East	0.77%	0.25%	0.91%
As % of the Qualifications category	1.78%	0.63%	2.22%
Number of daily rates quoted	34	8	30
10^th Percentile	£358	£420	£350
25^th Percentile	£400	£443	£402
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£483	£450	£513
Median % change year-on-year	+7.22%	-12.20%	-2.38%
75^th Percentile	£558	£479	£575
90^th Percentile	£584	£541	-
England median daily rate	£405	£423	£500
% change year-on-year	-4.14%	-15.50%	+1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted	15	0	0
10^th Percentile	£59.85	-	-
25^th Percentile	-	-	-
Median hourly rate	£60.00	-	-
75^th Percentile	-	-	-
90^th Percentile	£61.95	-	-
England median hourly rate	£60.00	£45.00	-
% change year-on-year	+33.33%	-	-

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

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 South East.

	6 months to 16 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications	2,872	1,435	1,758
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East	43.62%	39.63%	41.02%
Number of daily rates quoted	1,853	938	1,126
10^th Percentile	£326	£208	£302
25^th Percentile	£463	£401	£413
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£550	£500	£530
Median % change year-on-year	+10.00%	-5.66%	-1.40%
75^th Percentile	£638	£588	£638
90^th Percentile	£738	£650	£700
England median daily rate	£535	£525	£525
% change year-on-year	+1.90%	-	-4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted	350	136	107
10^th Percentile	£18.25	-	£22.46
25^th Percentile	£33.70	£18.87	£35.00
Median hourly rate	£61.75	£25.15	£60.60
Median % change year-on-year	+145.53%	-58.50%	+1.00%
75^th Percentile	£87.16	£42.93	£72.82
90^th Percentile	£100.00	£81.00	£92.15
England median hourly rate	£47.54	£25.15	£52.50
% change year-on-year	+89.03%	-52.10%	-2.17%

ISTQB Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing ISTQB relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

ISTQB Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB.

ISTQB Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB in the South East over the 6 months to 16 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB in the South East

ISTQB Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB.

ISTQB Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the South East region over the 6 months to 16 October 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
Hampshire	-7	24	£578	+7.44%	1
Thames Valley	-23	15	£502	+11.56%	3
Buckinghamshire	-	13	£490	-	1
West Sussex	-	9	£393	-	1
Surrey	-	3	£400	-	4
Berkshire	-29	2	£545	+21.11%	2
ISTQB England

ISTQB Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 16 October 2026, contractor job vacancies citing ISTQB also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region with a requirement for ISTQB.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Security Cleared	80.4%	41
2	Defect Management	68.6%	35
3	End-to-End Testing	60.8%	31
3	SC Cleared	60.8%	31
5	Software Testing	52.9%	27
6	Test Management	47.1%	24
7	ISTQB Foundation Certification	37.3%	19
7	PRINCE2	37.3%	19
9	Agile	35.3%	18
9	CI/CD	35.3%	18
11	AWS	31.4%	16
11	Degree	31.4%	16
11	PRINCE2 Practitioner	31.4%	16
11	Test Automation	31.4%	16
15	Project Management	29.4%	15
15	Project Planning	29.4%	15
15	SQL	29.4%	15
18	Azure	27.5%	14
18	DV Cleared	27.5%	14
18	JIRA	27.5%	14
21	QA	23.5%	12
22	Continuous Integration	21.6%	11
22	Integration Testing	21.6%	11
22	Non-Functional Testing	21.6%	11
22	SDLC	21.6%	11
22	Windows	21.6%	11
27	ISEB	17.6%	9
27	Performance Testing	17.6%	9
27	Scenario Testing	17.6%	9
27	Test Strategy	17.6%	9

ISTQB Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Qualifications

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Security Cleared	80.4%	41
2	SC Cleared	60.8%	31
3	ISTQB Foundation Certification	37.3%	19
4	Degree	31.4%	16
4	PRINCE2 Practitioner	31.4%	16
6	DV Cleared	27.5%	14
7	ISEB	17.6%	9
8	ISTQB Advanced Certification	15.7%	8
9	BPSS Clearance	2.0%	1
9	CBAP	2.0%	1
9	ISEB Practitioner	2.0%	1
9	ITIL Certification	2.0%	1