Postgraduate Contract Job Trends in the South West

Postgraduate
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West with a requirement for Postgraduate qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 30 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 126 135 -
Rank change year-on-year +9 - -
Contract jobs citing Postgraduate 2 1 0
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.088% 0.044% -
As % of the Qualifications category 0.16% 0.086% -
Number of daily rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £575 £450 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £500 -
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% - -
75th Percentile £625 £550 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £492 £488 £328
% change year-on-year +0.92% +48.58% -26.06%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South West

Postgraduate 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 1,270 1,169 1,723
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 55.95% 51.27% 55.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 797 720 1,078
10th Percentile £263 £350 £376
25th Percentile £450 £461 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £568 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% -1.30% +1.77%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £675
90th Percentile £741 £750 £729
England median daily rate £525 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 84 176
10th Percentile £17.90 £30.00 £34.50
25th Percentile £22.63 £57.25 £49.78
Median hourly rate £25.15 £66.00 £61.95
Median % change year-on-year -61.89% +6.55% -4.70%
75th Percentile £63.75 £71.56 £78.09
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £49.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year -49.19% -5.71% +16.67%

Postgraduate
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Postgraduate job vacancy trend in the South West

Postgraduate
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

Postgraduate
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 Postgraduate within the South West region over the 6 months to 30 November 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
Devon +9 1 - -
Wiltshire - 1 £600 -
Postgraduate
England

Postgraduate
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:

Applications
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 1 (50.00%) Cloud Computing
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (50.00%) Electronic Patient Records
General
1 2 (100.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (50.00%) Military
2 1 (50.00%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Data Migration Lead
1 1 (50.00%) Lead
1 1 (50.00%) Python Engineer
1 1 (50.00%) Python Software Engineer
1 1 (50.00%) Scientific Software Engineer
1 1 (50.00%) Software Engineer
1 1 (50.00%) Workstream Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (50.00%) OpenMP
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) NHS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (50.00%) Change Management
1 1 (50.00%) Code Quality
1 1 (50.00%) Collaborative Working
1 1 (50.00%) Data Migration
1 1 (50.00%) Data Pipeline
1 1 (50.00%) Mathematics
1 1 (50.00%) Migration
1 1 (50.00%) Project Management
1 1 (50.00%) Service Delivery
1 1 (50.00%) Software Engineering
1 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
1 1 (50.00%) Strategic Planning
1 1 (50.00%) User Experience
1 1 (50.00%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) C
1 1 (50.00%) C++
1 1 (50.00%) Fortran
1 1 (50.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) Degree
2 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (50.00%) QA
1 1 (50.00%) Software Quality Assurance
Vendors
1 1 (50.00%) Cerner