ISTQB Foundation Certification Contracts

ISTQB-BCS Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) formerly ISEB Foundation
UK

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

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 470 550 633
Rank change year-on-year +80 +83 +2
Contract jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification 49 50 80
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.17% 0.11% 0.13%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.55% 0.37% 0.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 40 64
10th Percentile £311 £345 £365
25th Percentile £381 £381 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £550 £489
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +12.53% +14.19%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £575 £603 £612
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% +22.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 1
Median hourly rate - £32.50 £52.00
Median % change year-on-year - -37.50% +100.00%
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £32.50 -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

ISTQB Foundation Certification 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 8,989 13,363 16,304
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.75% 30.65% 27.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,678 8,219 10,866
10th Percentile £288 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £707 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £530 £530
% change year-on-year -5.57% - +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 516 1,077 849
10th Percentile £18.13 £13.87 £15.25
25th Percentile £22.00 £17.88 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.72 £40.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.79% -25.93% +29.75%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.60 £68.25
90th Percentile £80.34 £75.25 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.94 £49.57
% change year-on-year +9.92% -17.41% +55.44%

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing ISTQB Foundation Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for ISTQB Foundation Certification in the UK

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification.

Daily rate trend for ISTQB Foundation Certification in the UK

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB Foundation Certification in the UK

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification.

Hourly rate trend for ISTQB Foundation Certification in the UK

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Top 12 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB Foundation Certification within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 +68 46 £450 -18.18% 37
UK excluding London +61 44 £450 -18.18% 28
South East +49 33 £488 -11.36% 9
Work from Home +37 5 £400 -20.00% 15
London +31 5 £411 -3.18% 9
Midlands +24 3 £476 +35.95% 9
West Midlands +18 3 £476 +35.95% 6
Scotland +9 3 £400 -
South West - 3 £315 - 6
North of England - 2 £363 - 2
Yorkshire - 1 - -
North East - 1 £363 - 1

ISTQB Foundation Certification
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (8.16%) WebLogic
Applications
1 2 (4.08%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 9 (18.37%) Azure
2 5 (10.20%) Azure DevOps
2 5 (10.20%) SaaS
3 3 (6.12%) IaaS
3 3 (6.12%) PaaS
3 3 (6.12%) Power Platform
3 3 (6.12%) PowerApps
4 2 (4.08%) Azure Stack
5 1 (2.04%) AWS
5 1 (2.04%) Azure Functions
5 1 (2.04%) GitHub
5 1 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
5 1 (2.04%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 16 (32.65%) LAN
1 16 (32.65%) WAN
2 15 (30.61%) ATM
2 15 (30.61%) Ethernet
2 15 (30.61%) Frame Relay
2 15 (30.61%) GPRS
2 15 (30.61%) GSM
2 15 (30.61%) LTE
2 15 (30.61%) MPLS
2 15 (30.61%) SAN
2 15 (30.61%) SDH
2 15 (30.61%) UMTS
2 15 (30.61%) VPN
2 15 (30.61%) Wireshark
3 2 (4.08%) Firewall
4 1 (2.04%) Cisco Firepower
4 1 (2.04%) Network Security
4 1 (2.04%) Unified Communications
4 1 (2.04%) WebEx
Development Applications
1 11 (22.45%) TestRail
2 10 (20.41%) JIRA
3 6 (12.24%) Cucumber
3 6 (12.24%) Selenium
4 4 (8.16%) Git
4 4 (8.16%) Jenkins
4 4 (8.16%) Toad
5 3 (6.12%) Cypress.io
5 3 (6.12%) Postman
5 3 (6.12%) Subversion
5 3 (6.12%) TeamCity
5 3 (6.12%) WebDriver
6 2 (4.08%) JUnit
7 1 (2.04%) Katalon Studio
7 1 (2.04%) REST Assured
7 1 (2.04%) SpecFlow
General
1 25 (51.02%) Social Skills
2 16 (32.65%) Telecoms
3 7 (14.29%) Public Sector
4 5 (10.20%) Finance
5 3 (6.12%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (2.04%) Advertising
6 1 (2.04%) Automotive
6 1 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.04%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 23 (46.94%) Test Engineer
2 21 (42.86%) Analyst
2 21 (42.86%) Test Analyst
3 14 (28.57%) IP Engineer
4 5 (10.20%) Senior
5 4 (8.16%) IP Network Engineer
5 4 (8.16%) Network Engineer
5 4 (8.16%) SAP Analyst
5 4 (8.16%) SAP Test Analyst
6 3 (6.12%) Lead
6 3 (6.12%) QA Engineer
6 3 (6.12%) Test Leader
7 2 (4.08%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
7 2 (4.08%) IP Consultant
7 2 (4.08%) IP Network Consultant
7 2 (4.08%) SC Cleared Test Analyst
7 2 (4.08%) Senior Analyst
7 2 (4.08%) Senior SAP Test Analyst
7 2 (4.08%) Senior Test Analyst
7 2 (4.08%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (8.16%) .NET
1 4 (8.16%) XML
2 1 (2.04%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 15 (30.61%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (6.12%) Client/Server
2 3 (6.12%) Mobile App
3 2 (4.08%) EPoS
4 1 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (2.04%) Greenfield Project
4 1 (2.04%) Mainframe
4 1 (2.04%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 17 (34.69%) Unix
2 15 (30.61%) Linux
3 4 (8.16%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (48.98%) Test Strategy
2 22 (44.90%) Agile
3 17 (34.69%) Regression Testing
4 16 (32.65%) Problem-Solving
5 15 (30.61%) Fault Management
5 15 (30.61%) Project Management
6 14 (28.57%) Test Management
7 13 (26.53%) Test Automation
8 10 (20.41%) Requirements Analysis
8 10 (20.41%) Scaled Agile Framework
9 9 (18.37%) Test Scripting
9 9 (18.37%) Validation
10 7 (14.29%) CI/CD
10 7 (14.29%) Defect Management
10 7 (14.29%) User Acceptance Testing
11 5 (10.20%) Customer Requirements
11 5 (10.20%) DevOps
11 5 (10.20%) Non-Functional Testing
11 5 (10.20%) Software Delivery
11 5 (10.20%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 24 (48.98%) Java
2 7 (14.29%) SQL
3 4 (8.16%) C#
4 3 (6.12%) C++
4 3 (6.12%) JavaScript
4 3 (6.12%) Shell Script
4 3 (6.12%) VBA
4 3 (6.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 49 (100.00%) ISTQB
2 28 (57.14%) ISEB
3 17 (34.69%) Security Cleared
4 15 (30.61%) CCNP
4 15 (30.61%) Cisco Certification
5 12 (24.49%) DV Cleared
6 5 (10.20%) SC Cleared
7 2 (4.08%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (16.33%) QA
Vendors
1 17 (34.69%) Cisco
1 17 (34.69%) Microsoft
2 15 (30.61%) Juniper
3 5 (10.20%) SAP
4 4 (8.16%) Oracle
4 4 (8.16%) webMethods
5 1 (2.04%) Genesys
5 1 (2.04%) Mitel