MCTS Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for MCTS qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 3 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 390 348 -
Rank change year-on-year -42 - -
Contract jobs citing MCTS 2 15 0
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.012% 0.090% -
As % of the Qualifications category 0.033% 0.27% -
Number of daily rates quoted 1 13 0
10th Percentile - £339 -
25th Percentile £213 £375 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £400 -
Median % change year-on-year -43.75% - -
75th Percentile £238 £425 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median daily rate £313 £400 £700
% change year-on-year -21.88% -42.86% +55.56%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK excluding London

MCTS 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 6,084 5,618 7,317
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 36.38% 33.76% 35.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,706 3,301 4,518
10th Percentile £213 £247 £250
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -3.09% +1.81%
75th Percentile £594 £624 £638
90th Percentile £688 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 825 402 621
10th Percentile £16.84 £18.73 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.18 £26.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £48.18 £51.89
Median % change year-on-year -47.80% -7.15% +15.31%
75th Percentile £41.00 £67.50 £68.75
90th Percentile £70.66 £75.00 £78.36
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £52.50
% change year-on-year -45.54% -12.04% +16.67%

MCTS
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MCTS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

MCTS job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

MCTS
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MCTS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MCTS

MCTS
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MCTS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MCTS

MCTS
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCTS within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 3 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
East of England -14 1 £225 +0.56% 1
South West - 1 - -
MCTS
UK

MCTS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (50.00%) Azure
1 1 (50.00%) Entra ID
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
Development Applications
1 1 (50.00%) JIRA
1 1 (50.00%) MSI
General
1 1 (50.00%) Documentation Skills
1 1 (50.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Blackberry
1 1 (50.00%) Onboarding
1 1 (50.00%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 2 (100.00%) Mac OS
2 1 (50.00%) Android
2 1 (50.00%) Apple iOS
2 1 (50.00%) Windows
2 1 (50.00%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) ITIL
1 2 (100.00%) Vulnerability Remediation
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) Application Packaging
2 1 (50.00%) Asset Management
2 1 (50.00%) Decision-Making
2 1 (50.00%) DevOps
2 1 (50.00%) Information Security
2 1 (50.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 1 (50.00%) ITSM
2 1 (50.00%) Mobile Device Management
2 1 (50.00%) Patch Management
2 1 (50.00%) Problem Management
2 1 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (50.00%) Root Cause Analysis
2 1 (50.00%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (100.00%) PowerShell
2 1 (50.00%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (50.00%) MCITP
2 1 (50.00%) MCP
2 1 (50.00%) MCSA
2 1 (50.00%) MCSE
2 1 (50.00%) Microsoft Certified Master
2 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 1 (50.00%) Active Directory
1 1 (50.00%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 1 (50.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
1 1 (50.00%) Jamf Pro
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft Intune
1 1 (50.00%) SCCM
1 1 (50.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft