Degree Contract Job Trends in the South West

Academic Degree
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 26 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 25 20
Rank change year-on-year -9 -5 +1
Contract jobs citing Degree 144 113 249
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.44% 6.65% 7.81%
As % of the Qualifications category 9.55% 12.12% 13.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 80 121
10th Percentile £188 £145 £160
25th Percentile £395 £344 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £638 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £738 £594 £688
90th Percentile £750 £726 £713
England median daily rate £500 £523 £512
% change year-on-year -4.31% +1.98% -5.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 19 58
10th Percentile £14.00 £55.00 £34.85
25th Percentile £15.87 £59.38 £40.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £65.00 £57.31
Median % change year-on-year -46.15% +13.42% -11.83%
75th Percentile £74.68 £75.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £87.30 £78.55 £83.40
England median hourly rate £55.00 £54.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +1.85% +35.00% -11.11%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South West

Degree 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 West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,508 932 1,808
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 46.50% 54.86% 56.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 950 597 1,167
10th Percentile £349 £250 £346
25th Percentile £438 £450 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £660
90th Percentile £719 £700 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 94 190
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.51 £21.00
25th Percentile £22.77 £25.18 £40.00
Median hourly rate £57.35 £61.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.37% +2.08% -8.40%
75th Percentile £67.84 £68.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £47.50 £47.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year -0.32% +19.13% -23.81%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Degree job vacancy trend in the South West

Degree
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree in the South West over the 6 months to 26 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in the South West

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree in the South West over the 6 months to 26 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in the South West

Degree
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the South West region over the 6 months to 26 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
Wiltshire +7 58 £725 +24.73% 23
Bristol -19 34 £450 +21.62% 49
Somerset -9 18 £160 -69.16% 24
Devon -15 14 £265 +65.47% 24
Gloucestershire -4 9 £575 +35.29% 52
Dorset -10 7 £400 -27.27% 16
Cornwall - 1 - - 5
Degree
England

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 41 (28.47%) Confluence
2 19 (13.19%) SharePoint
3 7 (4.86%) Apache
4 2 (1.39%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.69%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 66 (45.83%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (30.56%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (15.28%) Microsoft Excel
4 17 (11.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (2.08%) MS Visio
6 2 (1.39%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (1.39%) NEC Housing
1 2 (1.39%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.69%) Cerner Millennium
2 1 (0.69%) Primavera
2 1 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.69%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 25 (17.36%) Power Platform
2 15 (10.42%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (8.33%) Azure
4 6 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
5 5 (3.47%) Power Automate
6 4 (2.78%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (2.78%) GitHub
7 3 (2.08%) AWS
7 3 (2.08%) PowerApps
8 2 (1.39%) Asana
8 2 (1.39%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.69%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 1 (0.69%) Cloud Composer
9 1 (0.69%) GCP
9 1 (0.69%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.69%) IaaS
9 1 (0.69%) Stackdriver
Communications & Networking
1 3 (2.08%) 4G
1 3 (2.08%) 5G
1 3 (2.08%) LTE
1 3 (2.08%) Radio Access Network
2 2 (1.39%) 2G
2 2 (1.39%) 3G
2 2 (1.39%) BGP
2 2 (1.39%) Cisco IOS
2 2 (1.39%) Firewall
2 2 (1.39%) Network Security
2 2 (1.39%) OSPF
2 2 (1.39%) Skype
3 1 (0.69%) 5G NR
3 1 (0.69%) Cisco Nexus
3 1 (0.69%) DMVPN
3 1 (0.69%) Software-Defined Networking
3 1 (0.69%) Telepresence
3 1 (0.69%) Unified Communications
3 1 (0.69%) VSAN
3 1 (0.69%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (17.36%) Power BI
2 4 (2.78%) Relational Database
3 3 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (2.08%) Electronic Patient Records
4 2 (1.39%) Star Schema
5 1 (0.69%) Big Data
5 1 (0.69%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.69%) Geospatial Data
5 1 (0.69%) GIS
5 1 (0.69%) Metadata
5 1 (0.69%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.69%) Power Query
5 1 (0.69%) Snowflake Schema
5 1 (0.69%) Spatial Data
5 1 (0.69%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 52 (36.11%) JIRA
2 7 (4.86%) GitLab
3 4 (2.78%) Git
4 3 (2.08%) Artifactory
5 2 (1.39%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.69%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 86 (59.72%) Social Skills
2 62 (43.06%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (29.86%) Military
4 27 (18.75%) Finance
5 21 (14.58%) Public Sector
6 20 (13.89%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (5.56%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.78%) Aerospace
8 4 (2.78%) Back Office
8 4 (2.78%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.78%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (2.08%) Electronics
9 3 (2.08%) Legal
10 2 (1.39%) General Ledger
10 2 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (1.39%) Police
11 1 (0.69%) Aviation
11 1 (0.69%) Banking
11 1 (0.69%) Digital Healthcare
Job Titles
1 33 (22.92%) Architect
2 30 (20.83%) Service Architect
3 12 (8.33%) Lead
4 10 (6.94%) Project Manager
4 10 (6.94%) Technical Manager
5 9 (6.25%) Delivery Manager
5 9 (6.25%) Project Officer
5 9 (6.25%) Project Support Officer
5 9 (6.25%) Support Officer
6 8 (5.56%) Analyst
6 8 (5.56%) Support Engineer
7 7 (4.86%) Administrator
7 7 (4.86%) Technical Engineer
7 7 (4.86%) Technical Support
7 7 (4.86%) Technical Support Engineer
8 6 (4.17%) Business Analyst
9 5 (3.47%) Developer
9 5 (3.47%) Programme Manager
9 5 (3.47%) Software Engineer
9 5 (3.47%) Technical Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (6.25%) REST
2 7 (4.86%) JDO
3 3 (2.08%) Apache NiFi
3 3 (2.08%) CSS
3 3 (2.08%) HTML
4 2 (1.39%) FHIR
4 2 (1.39%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (1.39%) SOAP
4 2 (1.39%) Web Services
5 1 (0.69%) .NET
5 1 (0.69%) ASP.NET
5 1 (0.69%) EDI
5 1 (0.69%) EDIFACT
5 1 (0.69%) Flash
5 1 (0.69%) IDoc
5 1 (0.69%) JSON
5 1 (0.69%) LDAP
5 1 (0.69%) PySpark
5 1 (0.69%) RESTful
5 1 (0.69%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 35 (24.31%) Product Ownership
2 14 (9.72%) Management Information System
3 4 (2.78%) Freedom of Information
3 4 (2.78%) Onboarding
3 4 (2.78%) PKI
4 3 (2.08%) Low-Code
4 3 (2.08%) PMI
4 3 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.39%) CSOC
5 2 (1.39%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (1.39%) Cyber Security Posture
5 2 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.39%) NHS
5 2 (1.39%) Security Operations Centre
5 2 (1.39%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.69%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.69%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.69%) Fixed Income
6 1 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.69%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 9 (6.25%) Linux
2 8 (5.56%) Windows
3 5 (3.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (3.47%) Ubuntu
4 3 (2.08%) Debian
4 3 (2.08%) Rocky
4 3 (2.08%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.39%) CentOS
5 2 (1.39%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.69%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (55.56%) Agile
2 47 (32.64%) Critical Thinking
3 40 (27.78%) Computer Science
3 40 (27.78%) Service Management
4 39 (27.08%) Knowledge Transfer
4 39 (27.08%) Problem-Solving
5 36 (25.00%) Analytical Thinking
6 35 (24.31%) ITIL
7 32 (22.22%) TOGAF
8 31 (21.53%) Acceptance Criteria
9 30 (20.83%) Business Continuity
9 30 (20.83%) Project Management
9 30 (20.83%) Security Patching
9 30 (20.83%) Service Design
10 25 (17.36%) PRINCE2
11 23 (15.97%) Stakeholder Management
12 22 (15.28%) Waterfall
13 21 (14.58%) Analytics
14 16 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
14 16 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 16 (11.11%) Python
1 16 (11.11%) SQL
2 8 (5.56%) JavaScript
2 8 (5.56%) PowerShell
3 3 (2.08%) Go
3 3 (2.08%) PHP
4 2 (1.39%) C#
4 2 (1.39%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.69%) Bash
5 1 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 1 (0.69%) Java
5 1 (0.69%) Scala
5 1 (0.69%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 85 (59.03%) Security Cleared
2 74 (51.39%) SC Cleared
3 32 (22.22%) TOGAF Certification
4 23 (15.97%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (9.72%) APMP
6 10 (6.94%) DV Cleared
7 9 (6.25%) PMI Certification
7 9 (6.25%) PMP
7 9 (6.25%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 5 (3.47%) Master's Degree
9 4 (2.78%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (2.78%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 3 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (2.08%) MCSE
10 3 (2.08%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.39%) CBAP
11 2 (1.39%) CCNP
11 2 (1.39%) HND
12 1 (0.69%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.64%) QA
2 8 (5.56%) Data Quality
3 6 (4.17%) GDPR
4 4 (2.78%) Accessibility
5 3 (2.08%) PMO
6 2 (1.39%) Def Stans
6 2 (1.39%) HL7
6 2 (1.39%) SNOMED CT
7 1 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.69%) GMP
7 1 (0.69%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.69%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.69%) NIST
System Software
1 5 (3.47%) Docker
1 5 (3.47%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (2.08%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.39%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.69%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.69%) KVM
4 1 (0.69%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 30 (20.83%) OPNET
2 9 (6.25%) Kubernetes
3 6 (4.17%) Ansible
4 5 (3.47%) Terraform
5 2 (1.39%) Computer Incident Response Team
5 2 (1.39%) vCenter Server
5 2 (1.39%) WSUS
6 1 (0.69%) Grafana
6 1 (0.69%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.69%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.69%) Puppet
6 1 (0.69%) SCOM
Vendors
1 41 (28.47%) ServiceNow
2 38 (26.39%) Microsoft
3 35 (24.31%) Atlassian
4 31 (21.53%) Remedy
5 6 (4.17%) Oracle
6 5 (3.47%) Blue Prism
6 5 (3.47%) Red Hat
6 5 (3.47%) VMware
7 4 (2.78%) Databricks
8 3 (2.08%) Cisco
9 2 (1.39%) Automation Anywhere
9 2 (1.39%) Google
9 2 (1.39%) Huawei
9 2 (1.39%) Intel
9 2 (1.39%) NEC
9 2 (1.39%) UiPath
10 1 (0.69%) Alteryx
10 1 (0.69%) Cerner
10 1 (0.69%) Ericsson
10 1 (0.69%) Nokia