Instructional Design Contract Job Trends

Instructional Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Instructional Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 547 531 561
Rank change year-on-year -16 +30 +221
Contract jobs citing Instructional Design 37 23 29
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.100% 0.068% 0.066%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.11% 0.077% 0.075%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 11 12
10th Percentile £381 £300 £302
25th Percentile £441 £328 £322
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £363 £475
Median % change year-on-year +58.62% -23.68% -29.63%
75th Percentile £620 £386 £613
90th Percentile £638 £438 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £604 - £350
% change year-on-year - - +66.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 1
10th Percentile £46.40 £19.40 -
25th Percentile £49.63 £21.50 £16.61
Median hourly rate £55.00 £26.50 £17.25
Median % change year-on-year +107.55% +53.62% -54.00%
75th Percentile £55.50 £32.00 £17.89
90th Percentile £55.80 £34.40 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £19.00 -
% change year-on-year +189.47% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Instructional Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 32,744 29,791 38,561
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.06% 88.28% 88.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,623 18,168 25,704
10th Percentile £300 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,071 964 1,544
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -25.29% +24.29%
75th Percentile £51.23 £62.59 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.31 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £31.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.16% -30.00% +40.63%

Instructional Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Instructional Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Instructional Design job vacancy trend in the UK

Instructional Design
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Instructional Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Instructional Design

Instructional Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Instructional Design over the 6 months to 26 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Instructional Design in the UK

Instructional Design
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Instructional Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Instructional Design

Instructional Design
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Instructional Design within the UK over the 6 months to 26 December 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
England -40 35 £550 +51.72% 131
UK excluding London -29 26 £604 - 133
Work from Home +13 13 £581 +60.34% 11
North of England -47 13 £604 - 30
North West - 12 £608 - 15
London -14 7 £489 +32.81% 6
South West - 6 - - 13
Midlands - 6 - - 27
East Midlands - 4 - - 11
West Midlands - 2 - - 15
South East - 1 - - 27
Yorkshire - 1 £450 - 13

Instructional Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 1 (2.70%) Moodle
Applications
1 5 (13.51%) Camtasia
2 3 (8.11%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (8.11%) Snagit
3 2 (5.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (2.70%) Adobe Captivate
Cloud Services
1 5 (13.51%) Vyond
2 2 (5.41%) SaaS
3 1 (2.70%) Canva
3 1 (2.70%) ChatGPT
3 1 (2.70%) Google Gemini
3 1 (2.70%) Google Workspace
3 1 (2.70%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
General
1 17 (45.95%) Social Skills
2 6 (16.22%) Manufacturing
3 5 (13.51%) Marketing
4 4 (10.81%) Legal
5 3 (8.11%) Finance
5 3 (8.11%) Public Sector
6 2 (5.41%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (5.41%) Multimedia
7 1 (2.70%) Advertising
7 1 (2.70%) Aerospace
7 1 (2.70%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (2.70%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 10 (27.03%) Designer
2 6 (16.22%) Instructional Designer
2 6 (16.22%) Trainer
3 5 (13.51%) Consultant
3 5 (13.51%) IT Trainer
3 5 (13.51%) Training Consultant
4 3 (8.11%) Digital Learning Specialist
4 3 (8.11%) IT Consultant
4 3 (8.11%) Legal IT Trainer
4 3 (8.11%) Senior
4 3 (8.11%) Systems Designer
5 2 (5.41%) Coordinator
5 2 (5.41%) Developer
5 2 (5.41%) Digital Designer
5 2 (5.41%) Senior Designer
5 2 (5.41%) Training Coordinator
6 1 (2.70%) Digital Learning Designer
6 1 (2.70%) Fibre Engineer
6 1 (2.70%) Salesforce Trainer
6 1 (2.70%) Senior IT Trainer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.70%) CSS
1 1 (2.70%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (56.76%) e-Learning
2 10 (27.03%) Learning Management System
3 7 (18.92%) Fibre Optics
4 5 (13.51%) Onboarding
5 4 (10.81%) SCORM
6 3 (8.11%) Driving Licence
6 3 (8.11%) Web Conferencing
7 2 (5.41%) Digital Media
7 2 (5.41%) Educational Technology
7 2 (5.41%) Taxonomies
8 1 (2.70%) Marketing Technology
8 1 (2.70%) Video Editing
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (27.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
1 10 (27.03%) User Experience
2 9 (24.32%) Stakeholder Management
3 6 (16.22%) Knowledge Transfer
4 4 (10.81%) Storytelling
4 4 (10.81%) UX Design
5 3 (8.11%) Analytics
5 3 (8.11%) Change Management
5 3 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
5 3 (8.11%) Infographics
5 3 (8.11%) Project Management
5 3 (8.11%) Storyboarding
6 2 (5.41%) Agile
6 2 (5.41%) AI
6 2 (5.41%) Content Development
6 2 (5.41%) CRM
6 2 (5.41%) ERP
6 2 (5.41%) Information Security
6 2 (5.41%) Logistics
6 2 (5.41%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.70%) Java
Qualifications
1 9 (24.32%) Security Cleared
2 6 (16.22%) SC Cleared
3 3 (8.11%) Degree
4 2 (5.41%) DV Cleared
5 1 (2.70%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (16.22%) Accessibility
Vendors
1 5 (13.51%) Adobe
2 4 (10.81%) Microsoft
3 3 (8.11%) iManage
4 2 (5.41%) Salesforce