ISEB Contract Job Trends

Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for ISEB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 23 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 617 508 515
Rank change year-on-year -109 +7 +62
Contract jobs citing ISEB 41 53 65
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.078% 0.16% 0.16%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.25% 0.53% 0.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 42 50
10th Percentile £400 £308 £160
25th Percentile £413 £368 £281
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £419 £425
Median % change year-on-year +22.87% -1.47% -15.00%
75th Percentile £558 £538 £510
90th Percentile £650 £606 £596
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £410 £400
% change year-on-year +9.76% +2.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £25.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

ISEB 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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 16,505 10,067 12,307
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.30% 30.82% 29.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,025 6,245 7,756
10th Percentile £350 £277 £310
25th Percentile £430 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -0.10% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £638
90th Percentile £713 £701 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,198 744 971
10th Percentile £17.87 £17.87 £14.25
25th Percentile £25.75 £19.38 £20.75
Median hourly rate £52.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +107.75% -41.51% -25.00%
75th Percentile £73.46 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.00 £75.00 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -21.82%

ISEB
Job Vacancy Trend

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

ISEB job vacancy trend in the UK

ISEB
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing ISEB

ISEB
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISEB over the 6 months to 23 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for ISEB in the UK

ISEB
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing ISEB

ISEB
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 ISEB within the UK over the 6 months to 23 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
England -121 33 £525 +28.05% 8
UK excluding London -114 26 £450 +9.76% 7
South East -74 14 £520 +15.56%
Work from Home -60 12 £450 +2.86% 5
London -62 11 £563 -3.23% 1
Midlands -50 6 £400 -0.41% 3
West Midlands -55 6 £400 -0.41% 3
South West -34 5 £552 +72.34%
Scotland -9 2 £421 +1.94%
Channel Islands - 2 £450 -
North West -48 1 £550 +34.15%
North of England -74 1 £550 +34.15% 4

ISEB
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 5 (12.20%) Confluence
2 3 (7.32%) WebLogic
3 2 (4.88%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (7.32%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (4.88%) MS Visio
3 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (2.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (2.44%) Oracle EBS R12
1 1 (2.44%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 6 (14.63%) Azure
2 4 (9.76%) Azure DevOps
3 3 (7.32%) Tricentis Tosca
4 1 (2.44%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (2.44%) GCP
4 1 (2.44%) GitHub
4 1 (2.44%) PaaS
4 1 (2.44%) Power Platform
4 1 (2.44%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.44%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.88%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.44%) BigQuery
2 1 (2.44%) Geospatial Data
2 1 (2.44%) Power BI
2 1 (2.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 16 (39.02%) JIRA
2 3 (7.32%) Toad
3 2 (4.88%) Selenium
4 1 (2.44%) Artifactory
4 1 (2.44%) Cucumber
4 1 (2.44%) Git
4 1 (2.44%) GitLab
4 1 (2.44%) IntelliJ
4 1 (2.44%) Jenkins
4 1 (2.44%) JMeter
4 1 (2.44%) JUnit
4 1 (2.44%) Postman
4 1 (2.44%) Protractor
4 1 (2.44%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (2.44%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 1 (2.44%) Visual Studio
4 1 (2.44%) Zephyr
General
1 13 (31.71%) Social Skills
2 12 (29.27%) Public Sector
3 11 (26.83%) Finance
4 9 (21.95%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (9.76%) Banking
6 3 (7.32%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (7.32%) Legal
7 2 (4.88%) Automotive
7 2 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (4.88%) Manufacturing
7 2 (4.88%) Police
8 1 (2.44%) Advertising
8 1 (2.44%) Law
8 1 (2.44%) Local Government
8 1 (2.44%) Military
8 1 (2.44%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (2.44%) Social Housing
8 1 (2.44%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 22 (53.66%) Analyst
2 14 (34.15%) Business Analyst
3 10 (24.39%) Lead
4 7 (17.07%) Test Analyst
4 7 (17.07%) Test Leader
5 6 (14.63%) Senior
5 6 (14.63%) Senior Analyst
5 6 (14.63%) Senior Business Analyst
6 4 (9.76%) Architect
6 4 (9.76%) Enterprise Architect
6 4 (9.76%) SAP Analyst
6 4 (9.76%) SAP Test Analyst
7 3 (7.32%) SC Cleared Business Analyst
7 3 (7.32%) Tester
8 2 (4.88%) Lead Tester
8 2 (4.88%) SDLC Business Analyst
8 2 (4.88%) Test Manager
9 1 (2.44%) Azure Engineer
9 1 (2.44%) Data Protection Officer
9 1 (2.44%) JavaScript Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (12.20%) XML
2 2 (4.88%) RESTful
3 1 (2.44%) ADO
3 1 (2.44%) ebXML
3 1 (2.44%) Gherkin
3 1 (2.44%) JSON
3 1 (2.44%) Node.js
3 1 (2.44%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 2 (4.88%) Analytical Mindset
1 2 (4.88%) Reinsurance
2 1 (2.44%) Cloud Native
2 1 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (2.44%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (2.44%) Freedom of Information
2 1 (2.44%) Life Science
2 1 (2.44%) Management Information System
2 1 (2.44%) Onboarding
2 1 (2.44%) Product Ownership
2 1 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
2 1 (2.44%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 4 (9.76%) Windows
2 1 (2.44%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (39.02%) Agile
2 14 (34.15%) Business Analysis
2 14 (34.15%) Defect Management
2 14 (34.15%) Stakeholder Management
3 13 (31.71%) SDLC
4 12 (29.27%) Software Testing
4 12 (29.27%) Waterfall
5 11 (26.83%) Workshop Facilitation
6 10 (24.39%) PRINCE2
6 10 (24.39%) User Acceptance Testing
7 9 (21.95%) ITIL
7 9 (21.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 9 (21.95%) Validation
8 8 (19.51%) Impact Assessments
8 8 (19.51%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (17.07%) Acceptance Criteria
9 7 (17.07%) Process Improvement
9 7 (17.07%) Requirements Gathering
9 7 (17.07%) Test Management
9 7 (17.07%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 15 (36.59%) SQL
2 4 (9.76%) Java
3 1 (2.44%) Groovy
3 1 (2.44%) JavaScript
3 1 (2.44%) PL/SQL
3 1 (2.44%) Python
Qualifications
1 22 (53.66%) ISTQB
2 19 (46.34%) Security Cleared
3 18 (43.90%) SC Cleared
4 15 (36.59%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 6 (14.63%) CBAP
6 5 (12.20%) Degree
6 5 (12.20%) ISEB Practitioner
6 5 (12.20%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 4 (9.76%) IIBA
8 3 (7.32%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (4.88%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (4.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (2.44%) APMP
10 1 (2.44%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (9.76%) COBIT
2 3 (7.32%) Data Quality
2 3 (7.32%) QA
3 2 (4.88%) GDPR
3 2 (4.88%) ISO 15022
3 2 (4.88%) ISO 20022
4 1 (2.44%) Accessibility
4 1 (2.44%) PERC
4 1 (2.44%) PMO
System Software
1 1 (2.44%) Virtual Desktop
1 1 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 1 (2.44%) Grafana
1 1 (2.44%) HP ALM
1 1 (2.44%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 7 (17.07%) SAP
2 5 (12.20%) Microsoft
2 5 (12.20%) Oracle
3 3 (7.32%) ServiceNow
3 3 (7.32%) webMethods
4 1 (2.44%) CheckPoint
4 1 (2.44%) Citrix
4 1 (2.44%) Dynatrace
4 1 (2.44%) HP
4 1 (2.44%) Salesforce
4 1 (2.44%) Splunk