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 20 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 24 21
Rank change year-on-year -28 -3 -1
Contract jobs citing Degree 118 121 223
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.33% 6.40% 7.20%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.74% 12.32% 13.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 95 114
10th Percentile £150 £145 £160
25th Percentile £305 £235 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £450 £523
Median % change year-on-year -7.78% -13.88% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £688
90th Percentile £630 £650 £750
England median daily rate £500 £500 £508
% change year-on-year - -1.57% -4.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 13 58
10th Percentile £14.00 £27.87 £34.85
25th Percentile £16.25 £55.00 £40.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £65.00 £65.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.15% -0.76% +0.77%
75th Percentile £41.71 £72.50 £72.50
90th Percentile £73.52 £81.70 £75.00
England median hourly rate £48.50 £41.75 £48.00
% change year-on-year +16.17% -13.02% -10.90%

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 1,524 982 1,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 42.97% 51.93% 53.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 934 602 1,063
10th Percentile £333 £220 £363
25th Percentile £431 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £619 £643 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £537
% change year-on-year - -2.32% -2.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 197 107 191
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.51 £25.00
25th Percentile £25.77 £19.69 £40.00
Median hourly rate £57.35 £25.15 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +128.03% -61.31% -5.45%
75th Percentile £72.54 £65.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £85.25 £74.25 £78.00
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.80 £43.00
% change year-on-year +109.30% -40.00% -23.61%

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 20 July 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 20 July 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 20 July 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
Devon -11 26 £310 +93.44% 19
Somerset -16 26 £249 -59.55% 10
Bristol -26 24 £418 +12.84% 52
Wiltshire -16 22 £550 -6.38% 15
Gloucestershire -7 14 £500 +5.26% 57
Dorset -15 5 £575 +4.55% 19
Cornwall -3 1 - - 3
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 20 (16.95%) SharePoint
2 7 (5.93%) Apache
2 7 (5.93%) Confluence
3 4 (3.39%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (2.54%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 22 (18.64%) Microsoft Excel
1 22 (18.64%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (12.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (4.24%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (2.54%) MS Visio
4 3 (2.54%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (3.39%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (1.69%) NetSuite
2 2 (1.69%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.85%) IBM Planning Analytics
Cloud Services
1 25 (21.19%) Power Platform
2 22 (18.64%) Azure
3 18 (15.25%) Microsoft 365
4 15 (12.71%) AWS
5 5 (4.24%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (3.39%) GitHub
7 3 (2.54%) GCP
8 2 (1.69%) Entra ID
8 2 (1.69%) Microsoft Copilot
9 1 (0.85%) Asana
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 1 (0.85%) Cloud Composer
9 1 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.85%) Google Compute Engine
9 1 (0.85%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 1 (0.85%) Stackdriver
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.39%) DHCP
1 4 (3.39%) DNS
1 4 (3.39%) Network Security
2 2 (1.69%) 2G
2 2 (1.69%) 3G
2 2 (1.69%) 4G
2 2 (1.69%) 5G
2 2 (1.69%) LTE
2 2 (1.69%) Radio Access Network
2 2 (1.69%) VPN
3 1 (0.85%) BGP
3 1 (0.85%) EIGRP
3 1 (0.85%) ICMP
3 1 (0.85%) L2TP
3 1 (0.85%) MPLS
3 1 (0.85%) OSPF
3 1 (0.85%) RIP
3 1 (0.85%) Software-Defined Networking
3 1 (0.85%) TACACS
3 1 (0.85%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (21.19%) Power BI
2 6 (5.08%) SQL Server
3 5 (4.24%) Relational Database
4 3 (2.54%) Oracle Database
4 3 (2.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 2 (1.69%) Big Data
5 2 (1.69%) BigQuery
5 2 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (1.69%) Electronic Patient Records
5 2 (1.69%) GIS
5 2 (1.69%) Star Schema
6 1 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.85%) Geospatial Data
6 1 (0.85%) HBase
6 1 (0.85%) Metadata
6 1 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.85%) Power Query
6 1 (0.85%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.85%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.85%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 11 (9.32%) JIRA
2 6 (5.08%) GitLab
3 5 (4.24%) Git
4 4 (3.39%) Cucumber
4 4 (3.39%) Jenkins
4 4 (3.39%) Postman
4 4 (3.39%) REST Assured
5 3 (2.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.85%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.85%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.85%) JUnit
6 1 (0.85%) Selenium
6 1 (0.85%) Visual Studio
General
1 53 (44.92%) Social Skills
2 32 (27.12%) Finance
3 23 (19.49%) Organisational Skills
4 16 (13.56%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (11.02%) Public Sector
6 12 (10.17%) Aerospace
6 12 (10.17%) Military
7 6 (5.08%) Automotive
8 4 (3.39%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.54%) Electronics
9 3 (2.54%) Legal
9 3 (2.54%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.69%) Aviation
10 2 (1.69%) Banking
10 2 (1.69%) General Ledger
10 2 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.85%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 12 (10.17%) Administrator
1 12 (10.17%) Analyst
2 10 (8.47%) Project Officer
2 10 (8.47%) Project Support Officer
2 10 (8.47%) Support Officer
3 9 (7.63%) Developer
4 8 (6.78%) Project Manager
5 7 (5.93%) Software Engineer
5 7 (5.93%) Support Engineer
5 7 (5.93%) Technical Engineer
5 7 (5.93%) Technical Support
5 7 (5.93%) Technical Support Engineer
6 6 (5.08%) Data Engineer
6 6 (5.08%) Digital Product Manager
6 6 (5.08%) Lead
6 6 (5.08%) Product Manager
7 5 (4.24%) Software Developer
8 4 (3.39%) Data Administrator
8 4 (3.39%) Network Engineer
8 4 (3.39%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (6.78%) React
2 7 (5.93%) JDO
3 6 (5.08%) REST
4 5 (4.24%) .NET
4 5 (4.24%) ASP.NET
5 4 (3.39%) ASP.NET Core
5 4 (3.39%) Playwright
6 3 (2.54%) Blazor
6 3 (2.54%) jQuery
6 3 (2.54%) Kafka
7 2 (1.69%) FHIR
7 2 (1.69%) Flash
7 2 (1.69%) Spring
7 2 (1.69%) Spring Boot
8 1 (0.85%) Apache NiFi
8 1 (0.85%) Dapper ORM
8 1 (0.85%) Entity Framework
8 1 (0.85%) IDoc
8 1 (0.85%) PySpark
8 1 (0.85%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 14 (11.86%) Self-Motivation
2 8 (6.78%) Management Information System
3 7 (5.93%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (5.08%) Legacy Systems
5 4 (3.39%) Freedom of Information
5 4 (3.39%) Onboarding
5 4 (3.39%) PMI
5 4 (3.39%) Product Ownership
6 3 (2.54%) Cyber Defence
7 2 (1.69%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.69%) Clustering
7 2 (1.69%) CSOC
7 2 (1.69%) Cyber Security Posture
7 2 (1.69%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (1.69%) Learning Management System
7 2 (1.69%) PKI
7 2 (1.69%) Security Operations Centre
7 2 (1.69%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.69%) Web Conferencing
8 1 (0.85%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 11 (9.32%) Windows
2 8 (6.78%) Linux
3 5 (4.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (4.24%) Windows Server
4 4 (3.39%) Ubuntu
5 3 (2.54%) Debian
5 3 (2.54%) Rocky
6 2 (1.69%) Solaris
6 2 (1.69%) Windows 10
6 2 (1.69%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (37.29%) Agile
2 29 (24.58%) Computer Science
3 28 (23.73%) Continuous Improvement
4 25 (21.19%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (17.80%) Project Management
6 18 (15.25%) CI/CD
6 18 (15.25%) Stakeholder Management
7 15 (12.71%) DevOps
7 15 (12.71%) PRINCE2
7 15 (12.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 14 (11.86%) Change Control
8 14 (11.86%) Software Engineering
9 12 (10.17%) Analytics
9 12 (10.17%) Waterfall
10 11 (9.32%) Collaborative Working
10 11 (9.32%) Project Delivery
10 11 (9.32%) Scrum
11 10 (8.47%) Decision-Making
11 10 (8.47%) Mentoring
11 10 (8.47%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 16 (13.56%) SQL
2 15 (12.71%) Python
3 10 (8.47%) JavaScript
4 6 (5.08%) Ada
4 6 (5.08%) Java
5 5 (4.24%) C#
6 4 (3.39%) Apex Code
7 3 (2.54%) Go
7 3 (2.54%) PL/SQL
7 3 (2.54%) T-SQL
8 2 (1.69%) Bash
8 2 (1.69%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.85%) PHP
9 1 (0.85%) Scala
9 1 (0.85%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 50 (42.37%) Security Cleared
2 35 (29.66%) SC Cleared
3 18 (15.25%) Computer Science Degree
4 12 (10.17%) DV Cleared
5 10 (8.47%) PMI Certification
5 10 (8.47%) PMP
5 10 (8.47%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 8 (6.78%) Chartered Engineer
6 8 (6.78%) Master's Degree
7 5 (4.24%) SANS
8 4 (3.39%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (3.39%) ISTQB
8 4 (3.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (2.54%) APMP
9 3 (2.54%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (2.54%) CCNP
10 2 (1.69%) CBAP
10 2 (1.69%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (0.85%) IIBA
11 1 (0.85%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (10.17%) GDPR
2 8 (6.78%) QA
3 7 (5.93%) Data Quality
4 4 (3.39%) Accessibility
4 4 (3.39%) PMO
5 3 (2.54%) Def Stans
5 3 (2.54%) IEC 61508
6 2 (1.69%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (1.69%) HL7
6 2 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.69%) SNOMED CT
7 1 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.85%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.85%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.85%) NIST
System Software
1 7 (5.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (4.24%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.24%) Docker
2 5 (4.24%) Hyper-V
3 4 (3.39%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (2.54%) VMware Workstation
5 2 (1.69%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.85%) KVM
6 1 (0.85%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 7 (5.93%) Kubernetes
2 4 (3.39%) Ansible
3 3 (2.54%) Functional Safety
3 3 (2.54%) Terraform
4 2 (1.69%) Computer Incident Response Team
4 2 (1.69%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.85%) Data Guard
5 1 (0.85%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
5 1 (0.85%) Grafana
5 1 (0.85%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 1 (0.85%) Oracle RMAN
5 1 (0.85%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.85%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.85%) Puppet
Vendors
1 34 (28.81%) Microsoft
2 11 (9.32%) ServiceNow
3 7 (5.93%) VMware
4 6 (5.08%) Salesforce
5 4 (3.39%) ArcSight
5 4 (3.39%) Conga
5 4 (3.39%) Databricks
5 4 (3.39%) GoCardless
5 4 (3.39%) Oracle
6 3 (2.54%) Cisco
6 3 (2.54%) Google
7 2 (1.69%) Alteryx
7 2 (1.69%) Huawei
8 1 (0.85%) Cloudera
8 1 (0.85%) EMC
8 1 (0.85%) IBM
8 1 (0.85%) Red Hat