Test Planning Contract Job Trends in the South West

Test Planning
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West citing Test Planning skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 November 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 11 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	144	125	120
Rank change year-on-year	-19	-5	+34
Contract jobs citing Test Planning	14	5	9
As % of all contract jobs in the South West	0.38%	0.23%	0.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category	0.48%	0.26%	0.45%
Number of daily rates quoted	4	2	8
10^th Percentile	£426	£402	£421
25^th Percentile	£464	£405	£444
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£508	£419	£496
Median % change year-on-year	+21.19%	-15.62%	+19.58%
75^th Percentile	£550	£442	£568
90^th Percentile	£573	£451	£582
England median daily rate	£500	£450	£450
% change year-on-year	+11.11%	-	-12.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted	5	0	0
Median hourly rate	£75.00	-	-
England median hourly rate	£75.00	£75.00	-

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

Test Planning falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing process or methodology skills in the South West.

	6 months to 11 Nov 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills	2,914	1,901	1,996
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West	78.14%	88.17%	84.58%
Number of daily rates quoted	1,585	1,107	1,201
10^th Percentile	£337	£225	£313
25^th Percentile	£450	£385	£425
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£550	£515	£525
Median % change year-on-year	+6.80%	-1.90%	-4.55%
75^th Percentile	£638	£625	£641
90^th Percentile	£738	£725	£734
England median daily rate	£525	£508	£525
% change year-on-year	+3.40%	-3.29%	-4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted	521	281	139
10^th Percentile	£13.96	£15.25	£14.41
25^th Percentile	£19.78	£18.87	£31.50
Median hourly rate	£57.35	£25.15	£65.00
Median % change year-on-year	+128.03%	-61.31%	+8.33%
75^th Percentile	£70.00	£63.75	£70.25
90^th Percentile	£76.50	£67.25	£74.00
England median hourly rate	£35.22	£25.15	£36.17
% change year-on-year	+40.04%	-30.46%	-18.73%

Test Planning Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Test Planning Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

Test Planning Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Planning in the South West over the 6 months to 11 November 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Planning in the South West

Test Planning Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

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

Test Planning 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 Test Planning within the South West region over the 6 months to 11 November 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
Wiltshire	-	7	£445	-	4
Bristol	-10	6	£525	+25.37%	2
Test Planning England

Test Planning Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West

For the 6 months to 11 November 2026, contractor job vacancies citing Test Planning 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 West region citing Test Planning.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Security Cleared	57.1%	8
2	SC Cleared	50.0%	7
2	Service Management	50.0%	7
2	User Acceptance Testing	50.0%	7
5	Azure	42.9%	6
5	Microsoft	42.9%	6
5	Stakeholder Engagement	42.9%	6
5	Test Automation	42.9%	6
9	BPSS Clearance	35.7%	5
9	Configuration Management	35.7%	5
9	Continuous Improvement	35.7%	5
9	ERP	35.7%	5
9	Exploratory Testing	35.7%	5
9	Mentoring	35.7%	5
9	PLM	35.7%	5
9	PTC Creo	35.7%	5
9	Salesforce	35.7%	5
9	SAP	35.7%	5
9	SAP S/4HANA	35.7%	5
9	Siemens	35.7%	5
9	Software Testing	35.7%	5
9	Teamcenter	35.7%	5
9	Windows	35.7%	5
24	Validation	21.4%	3
25	ITIL	14.3%	2
25	ITSM	14.3%	2
25	Requirements Gathering	14.3%	2
25	Stakeholder Management	14.3%	2
29	Acceptance Criteria	7.1%	1
29	Agile	7.1%	1

Test Planning Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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.

Processes & Methodologies

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Service Management	50.0%	7
1	User Acceptance Testing	50.0%	7
3	Stakeholder Engagement	42.9%	6
3	Test Automation	42.9%	6
5	Configuration Management	35.7%	5
5	Continuous Improvement	35.7%	5
5	ERP	35.7%	5
5	Exploratory Testing	35.7%	5
5	Mentoring	35.7%	5
5	PLM	35.7%	5
5	Software Testing	35.7%	5
12	Validation	21.4%	3
13	ITIL	14.3%	2
13	ITSM	14.3%	2
13	Requirements Gathering	14.3%	2
13	Stakeholder Management	14.3%	2
17	Acceptance Criteria	7.1%	1
17	Agile	7.1%	1
17	AI	7.1%	1
17	Analytical Thinking	7.1%	1