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 23 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 29 20
Rank change year-on-year +7 -9 +7
Contract jobs citing Degree 168 128 205
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 6.58% 6.65% 6.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 11.90% 12.26% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 70 91
10th Percentile £375 £156 £363
25th Percentile £513 £366 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £533 £550
Median % change year-on-year +21.95% -3.09% -
75th Percentile £738 £688 £675
90th Percentile - £775 £713
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 15 56
10th Percentile - £46.00 £38.75
25th Percentile - £55.63 £48.43
Median hourly rate £33.50 £65.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -48.46% +15.06% -13.09%
75th Percentile £80.92 £75.00 £83.40
90th Percentile £116.48 - -
England median hourly rate £37.50 £42.50 £41.50
% change year-on-year -11.76% +2.41% +2.47%

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 1,412 1,044 1,647
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 55.29% 54.23% 54.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 895 648 1,046
10th Percentile £309 £296 £397
25th Percentile £450 £448 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -
75th Percentile £675 £650 £675
90th Percentile £738 £731 £738
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.10% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 78 177
10th Percentile £17.69 £28.58 £33.00
25th Percentile £19.81 £55.00 £48.32
Median hourly rate £25.15 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -61.31% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.75 £73.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £47.75
% change year-on-year -45.54% -3.29% +6.11%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 +8 74 £725 +16.00% 77
Bristol +11 55 £550 +37.41% 124
Gloucestershire -11 13 £450 +20.00% 100
Devon -3 8 £220 +100.00% 82
Somerset -11 8 £428 -32.41% 92
Dorset +10 7 £400 - 85
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 49 (29.17%) Confluence
2 10 (5.95%) SharePoint
3 8 (4.76%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (2.98%) Skype for Business
5 3 (1.79%) Apache
Applications
1 77 (45.83%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (26.19%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (6.55%) MS Visio
4 9 (5.36%) Microsoft Excel
5 6 (3.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.60%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.60%) InVision
6 1 (0.60%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.60%) Simulink
6 1 (0.60%) Sketch
6 1 (0.60%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 6 (3.57%) Remedy ITSM
1 6 (3.57%) SAP EWM
1 6 (3.57%) SAP WM
2 3 (1.79%) Primavera
3 2 (1.19%) NEC Housing
3 2 (1.19%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 1 (0.60%) Cerner Millennium
4 1 (0.60%) SystmOne
4 1 (0.60%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 13 (7.74%) Power Platform
2 12 (7.14%) AWS
2 12 (7.14%) Azure
3 10 (5.95%) Lucidchart
3 10 (5.95%) OCI
4 5 (2.98%) Power Automate
5 4 (2.38%) Azure DevOps
5 4 (2.38%) GitHub
6 3 (1.79%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (1.79%) GCP
6 3 (1.79%) OpenShift
6 3 (1.79%) PowerApps
7 2 (1.19%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.60%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.60%) Asana
8 1 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.60%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.60%) Figma
8 1 (0.60%) IaaS
8 1 (0.60%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.36%) Skype
2 7 (4.17%) Unified Communications
3 5 (2.98%) DHCP
3 5 (2.98%) DNS
4 2 (1.19%) BGP
4 2 (1.19%) Firewall
4 2 (1.19%) OSPF
5 1 (0.60%) 4G
5 1 (0.60%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.60%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (0.60%) DMVPN
5 1 (0.60%) LTE
5 1 (0.60%) MIMO
5 1 (0.60%) Network Security
5 1 (0.60%) Radio Access Network
5 1 (0.60%) Telepresence
5 1 (0.60%) VLAN
5 1 (0.60%) VoIP
5 1 (0.60%) WAAS
5 1 (0.60%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.74%) Power BI
2 5 (2.98%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.19%) Electronic Patient Records
4 2 (1.19%) Oracle Database
4 2 (1.19%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.60%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.60%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.60%) Looker
5 1 (0.60%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.60%) MySQL
5 1 (0.60%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.60%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 1 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (0.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 48 (28.57%) JIRA
2 6 (3.57%) Git
3 4 (2.38%) GitLab
4 3 (1.79%) Bitbucket
4 3 (1.79%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.19%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.60%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.60%) Rational Team Concert
General
1 109 (64.88%) Social Skills
2 75 (44.64%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (25.00%) Military
4 23 (13.69%) Public Sector
5 22 (13.10%) Finance
6 15 (8.93%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (6.55%) Manufacturing
8 9 (5.36%) Aerospace
9 7 (4.17%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (3.57%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (2.38%) Back Office
12 3 (1.79%) Automotive
12 3 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (1.79%) Legal
12 3 (1.79%) Telecoms
13 2 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (1.19%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (1.19%) Police
14 1 (0.60%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 34 (20.24%) Architect
2 30 (17.86%) Service Architect
3 14 (8.33%) Analyst
4 11 (6.55%) Lead
5 10 (5.95%) Information Security Advisor
5 10 (5.95%) Security Advisor
5 10 (5.95%) Technical Manager
5 10 (5.95%) Technical Writer
6 9 (5.36%) Developer
7 8 (4.76%) Wintel Engineer
8 7 (4.17%) Consultant
8 7 (4.17%) Delivery Manager
8 7 (4.17%) Senior
9 6 (3.57%) Junior
9 6 (3.57%) Management Consultant
9 6 (3.57%) SAP Consultant
9 6 (3.57%) SAP WM Consultant
9 6 (3.57%) Security Analyst
9 6 (3.57%) Security Engineer
9 6 (3.57%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.57%) CSS
1 6 (3.57%) HTML
2 4 (2.38%) JDO
2 4 (2.38%) REST
3 3 (1.79%) AngularJS
3 3 (1.79%) Node.js
3 3 (1.79%) React
3 3 (1.79%) Ruby on Rails
3 3 (1.79%) Spring
3 3 (1.79%) Vue
4 2 (1.19%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (1.19%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (1.19%) SOAP
4 2 (1.19%) Web Services
5 1 (0.60%) Django
5 1 (0.60%) JFC
5 1 (0.60%) OpenMP
5 1 (0.60%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 33 (19.64%) Product Ownership
2 32 (19.05%) Management Information System
3 10 (5.95%) Security Posture
4 8 (4.76%) PKI
5 6 (3.57%) Cyber Defence
5 6 (3.57%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.98%) Cloud Native
7 3 (1.79%) Low-Code
7 3 (1.79%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.19%) NHS
9 1 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.60%) Clustering
9 1 (0.60%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.60%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.60%) Operational Technology
9 1 (0.60%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.60%) Replication
9 1 (0.60%) SCADA
9 1 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 14 (8.33%) Windows
2 9 (5.36%) Linux
3 8 (4.76%) Windows Server
4 5 (2.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (2.98%) Windows 10
5 4 (2.38%) Ubuntu
6 3 (1.79%) CentOS
6 3 (1.79%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.60%) Debian
7 1 (0.60%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.60%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (44.05%) Agile
2 55 (32.74%) Critical Thinking
3 52 (30.95%) Problem-Solving
4 49 (29.17%) Computer Science
5 47 (27.98%) Service Management
6 46 (27.38%) ITIL
7 35 (20.83%) Analytical Thinking
8 33 (19.64%) TOGAF
9 32 (19.05%) Knowledge Transfer
10 31 (18.45%) Acceptance Criteria
10 31 (18.45%) Business Continuity
11 30 (17.86%) Security Patching
11 30 (17.86%) Service Design
12 25 (14.88%) ERP
13 19 (11.31%) Project Management
14 17 (10.12%) Analytics
15 16 (9.52%) DevOps
15 16 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
15 16 (9.52%) Waterfall
16 15 (8.93%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (10.12%) SQL
2 14 (8.33%) PowerShell
3 12 (7.14%) Python
4 10 (5.95%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.38%) Ada
6 3 (1.79%) Java
6 3 (1.79%) Ruby
6 3 (1.79%) TypeScript
7 2 (1.19%) C
7 2 (1.19%) Fortran
7 2 (1.19%) PHP
7 2 (1.19%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.60%) C#
8 1 (0.60%) C++
8 1 (0.60%) Go
8 1 (0.60%) MATLAB
8 1 (0.60%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 108 (64.29%) Security Cleared
2 99 (58.93%) SC Cleared
3 32 (19.05%) TOGAF Certification
4 27 (16.07%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (11.31%) Master's Degree
6 18 (10.71%) DV Cleared
7 12 (7.14%) APMP
7 12 (7.14%) BPSS Clearance
8 10 (5.95%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 10 (5.95%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (5.36%) MCSE
10 7 (4.17%) CCNP
10 7 (4.17%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (4.17%) CISSP
11 6 (3.57%) CompTIA CySA+
11 6 (3.57%) Network+ Certification
11 6 (3.57%) SANS
11 6 (3.57%) SAP Certification
12 5 (2.98%) CCNA
12 5 (2.98%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.95%) Def Stans
1 10 (5.95%) GRC
1 10 (5.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 10 (5.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
2 6 (3.57%) QA
3 4 (2.38%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.79%) PMO
5 2 (1.19%) NIST
6 1 (0.60%) GDPR
6 1 (0.60%) GMP
6 1 (0.60%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.60%) NCSC
6 1 (0.60%) P3O
6 1 (0.60%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 9 (5.36%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.98%) Docker
3 5 (2.98%) Microsoft Virtual Server
3 5 (2.98%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 30 (17.86%) OPNET
2 10 (5.95%) Kubernetes
3 8 (4.76%) WSUS
4 7 (4.17%) Ansible
4 7 (4.17%) Terraform
5 6 (3.57%) SCCM
6 3 (1.79%) Argo
6 3 (1.79%) SCOM
7 1 (0.60%) Dell DRAC
7 1 (0.60%) Packer
7 1 (0.60%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.60%) Puppet
Vendors
1 39 (23.21%) Atlassian
2 36 (21.43%) Remedy
3 31 (18.45%) ServiceNow
4 26 (15.48%) Microsoft
5 19 (11.31%) Oracle
6 9 (5.36%) VMware
7 8 (4.76%) Cisco
7 8 (4.76%) Red Hat
7 8 (4.76%) SAP
8 6 (3.57%) SolarWinds
8 6 (3.57%) Veeam
9 5 (2.98%) Blue Prism
9 5 (2.98%) Splunk
10 3 (1.79%) Google
11 2 (1.19%) Automation Anywhere
11 2 (1.19%) Cerner
11 2 (1.19%) Intel
11 2 (1.19%) NEC
11 2 (1.19%) Salesforce
11 2 (1.19%) UiPath