International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 16 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
16 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 455 476 442
Rank change year-on-year +21 -34 -11
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 124 209 478
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.29% 0.37% 0.55%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.97% 1.35% 2.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 157 361
10th Percentile £350 £346 £350
25th Percentile £400 £411 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.25% +11.11% +12.50%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £510
90th Percentile £650 £619 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £450
% change year-on-year +2.56% +8.33% +17.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 6
10th Percentile - £53.55 £15.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £55.88 £18.19
Median hourly rate £20.50 £63.50 £34.98
Median % change year-on-year -67.72% +81.56% -31.76%
75th Percentile £21.75 £74.88 £48.74
90th Percentile - £79.45 £51.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.50 £75.00 £49.50
% change year-on-year -72.67% +51.52% -10.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

ISTQB is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 12,833 15,476 18,815
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.15% 27.17% 21.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,954 10,342 12,449
10th Percentile £308 £325 £337
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.09% +4.76% +7.69%
75th Percentile £646 £650 £627
90th Percentile £738 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +0.95% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,055 780 767
10th Percentile £13.69 £15.25 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.72 £20.47 £19.82
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.56 £43.95
Median % change year-on-year -26.69% +24.14% +16.73%
75th Percentile £61.60 £68.25 £58.17
90th Percentile £75.85 £79.78 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.30 £50.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -19.40% +42.86% +1.33%

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB over the 6 months to 16 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the UK over the 6 months to 16 May 2024. 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 +38 106 £525 +5.00% 44
UK excluding London +22 78 £500 +2.56% 35
Work from Home +104 59 £500 +8.11% 27
South East +23 39 £550 - 10
London +76 37 £550 +4.76% 9
Midlands +17 14 £400 -5.88% 9
South West +8 9 £425 -22.73% 4
West Midlands +21 8 £400 -8.88% 8
Scotland +33 7 £425 -15.00% 3
East Midlands +10 6 £513 +105.00% 1
East of England +7 3 £438 -12.50% 2
North of England -3 3 £410 +2.50% 7
North East - 3 £410 -
Isle of Man - 2 £388 -
Wales +18 1 £210 -

ISTQB
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 10 (8.06%) Confluence
2 1 (0.81%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.81%) Appian
2 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.81%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.81%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 3 (2.42%) Windchill
2 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (2.42%) ENOVIA
1 3 (2.42%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.61%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.81%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 14 (11.29%) Azure DevOps
2 13 (10.48%) Azure
3 7 (5.65%) AWS
4 6 (4.84%) SaaS
5 2 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (1.61%) IaaS
5 2 (1.61%) PaaS
5 2 (1.61%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.81%) Boomi
6 1 (0.81%) BrowserStack
6 1 (0.81%) dbt
6 1 (0.81%) Miro
6 1 (0.81%) OCI
6 1 (0.81%) Sauce Labs
6 1 (0.81%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 3 (2.42%) TCP/IP
2 1 (0.81%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (9.68%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.42%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.61%) Oracle BI EE
3 2 (1.61%) Oracle Database
3 2 (1.61%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (25.81%) TestRail
2 28 (22.58%) JIRA
3 18 (14.52%) Selenium
4 12 (9.68%) Cucumber
5 9 (7.26%) Git
5 9 (7.26%) JMeter
6 7 (5.65%) Jenkins
7 6 (4.84%) JUnit
8 5 (4.03%) SpecFlow
8 5 (4.03%) Visual Studio
9 4 (3.23%) Appium
9 4 (3.23%) FitNesse
10 3 (2.42%) Cypress.io
10 3 (2.42%) LoadRunner
10 3 (2.42%) SoapUI
10 3 (2.42%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 3 (2.42%) Subversion
10 3 (2.42%) TestNG
11 2 (1.61%) TeamCity
11 2 (1.61%) WebDriver
General
1 44 (35.48%) Social Skills
2 28 (22.58%) Finance
3 17 (13.71%) Public Sector
4 16 (12.90%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (6.45%) Telecoms
6 5 (4.03%) Electronics
6 5 (4.03%) Marketing
7 4 (3.23%) Banking
7 4 (3.23%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.42%) Automotive
8 3 (2.42%) Back Office
8 3 (2.42%) Front Office
9 2 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.61%) German Language
9 2 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.61%) Military
9 2 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.61%) Spanish Language
10 1 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 48 (38.71%) Analyst
2 42 (33.87%) Test Analyst
3 27 (21.77%) Test Manager
4 20 (16.13%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
5 13 (10.48%) Test Engineer
6 11 (8.87%) Senior
6 11 (8.87%) Tester
7 8 (6.45%) Lead
8 6 (4.84%) QA Analyst
8 6 (4.84%) Test Leader
9 5 (4.03%) Architect
9 5 (4.03%) Functional Analyst
9 5 (4.03%) Functional Test Analyst
9 5 (4.03%) QA Tester
9 5 (4.03%) Test Architect
10 4 (3.23%) Automation Engineer
10 4 (3.23%) Senior Architect
10 4 (3.23%) Senior Test Architect
10 4 (3.23%) Test Specialist
11 3 (2.42%) Validation Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (8.06%) Web Services
2 4 (3.23%) .NET
2 4 (3.23%) REST
2 4 (3.23%) XML
3 3 (2.42%) Playwright
4 2 (1.61%) SOAP
5 1 (0.81%) .NET Framework
5 1 (0.81%) HTML
5 1 (0.81%) JSON
5 1 (0.81%) Middleware
5 1 (0.81%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 7 (5.65%) Life Science
2 5 (4.03%) Management Information System
2 5 (4.03%) NHS
3 4 (3.23%) Mobile App
4 3 (2.42%) Virtual Team
5 2 (1.61%) Algorithms
5 2 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.61%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.61%) Product Ownership
5 2 (1.61%) Reinsurance
6 1 (0.81%) Digital Media
6 1 (0.81%) DTCC
6 1 (0.81%) IVR
6 1 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.81%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.81%) PMI
6 1 (0.81%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 11 (8.87%) Linux
2 7 (5.65%) Unix
3 5 (4.03%) Windows
4 2 (1.61%) Android
4 2 (1.61%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.61%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (54.03%) Agile
2 65 (52.42%) Test Automation
3 56 (45.16%) Test Management
4 49 (39.52%) Software Testing
5 43 (34.68%) Test Strategy
6 31 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
7 30 (24.19%) Continuous Integration
8 23 (18.55%) Defect Management
8 23 (18.55%) End-to-End Testing
9 22 (17.74%) Functional Testing
9 22 (17.74%) Test Scripting
9 22 (17.74%) User Acceptance Testing
10 19 (15.32%) Waterfall
11 17 (13.71%) DevOps
11 17 (13.71%) Integration Testing
12 15 (12.10%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (12.10%) Performance Testing
13 14 (11.29%) Scaled Agile Framework
13 14 (11.29%) SDLC
13 14 (11.29%) Test Planning
Programming Languages
1 21 (16.94%) SQL
2 13 (10.48%) Python
3 10 (8.06%) C#
4 9 (7.26%) Java
4 9 (7.26%) JavaScript
5 5 (4.03%) Shell Script
6 4 (3.23%) TypeScript
7 3 (2.42%) C++
8 2 (1.61%) Kotlin
8 2 (1.61%) Swift
8 2 (1.61%) VBA
8 2 (1.61%) VBScript
9 1 (0.81%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 53 (42.74%) Security Cleared
2 43 (34.68%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 30 (24.19%) ISEB
4 28 (22.58%) DV Cleared
5 24 (19.35%) SC Cleared
6 22 (17.74%) Degree
7 9 (7.26%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (5.65%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 4 (3.23%) Master's Degree
10 3 (2.42%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (2.42%) HNC
10 3 (2.42%) PMI Certification
11 2 (1.61%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (36.29%) QA
2 6 (4.84%) HL7
3 3 (2.42%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.61%) Def Stans
4 2 (1.61%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.81%) MiFID
System Software
1 3 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (0.81%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (2.42%) HP ALM
2 2 (1.61%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 18 (14.52%) Oracle
2 9 (7.26%) SAP
3 6 (4.84%) Microsoft
4 3 (2.42%) BT
4 3 (2.42%) HP
4 3 (2.42%) PTC
4 3 (2.42%) Siemens
5 2 (1.61%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.81%) Adobe
6 1 (0.81%) Ariba
6 1 (0.81%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.81%) Citrix
6 1 (0.81%) Dell
6 1 (0.81%) Genesys
6 1 (0.81%) Guidewire
6 1 (0.81%) Perfecto Mobile
6 1 (0.81%) ScienceLogic
6 1 (0.81%) Workday