ISTQB Contracts

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 1 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 460 506 432
Rank change year-on-year +46 -74 +19
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 115 177 495
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.27% 0.32% 0.57%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.89% 1.16% 2.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 133 380
10th Percentile £346 £351 £350
25th Percentile £400 £411 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +11.11% +12.43%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £500
90th Percentile £650 £626 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.50% +11.11% +12.50%
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% -27.51%
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% +1.02%

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 12,872 15,254 19,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 29.89% 27.21% 21.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,011 10,183 12,699
10th Percentile £310 £338 £345
25th Percentile £425 £450 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% +4.76% +6.06%
75th Percentile £645 £650 £630
90th Percentile £738 £738 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £535 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +1.90% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,100 745 759
10th Percentile £13.87 £14.67 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.13 £21.24 £19.52
Median hourly rate £40.00 £55.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -27.27% +23.60% +28.21%
75th Percentile £62.50 £68.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £76.32 £79.19 £67.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.25 £52.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -21.43% +50.00% +16.67%

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 1 June 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 1 June 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 +26 98 £525 +4.48% 43
UK excluding London +11 71 £473 -5.50% 38
Work from Home +108 55 £500 +8.11% 21
South East +23 38 £550 +2.33% 10
London +75 36 £550 +4.76% 8
Midlands +20 12 £400 -11.11% 10
Scotland +34 7 £425 -15.00% 5
West Midlands +13 6 £400 -20.00% 9
East Midlands +12 6 £513 +70.83% 2
South West -2 5 £425 -27.66% 5
East of England +2 3 £438 -12.50% 1
North of England -2 3 £410 -0.61% 6
North East - 3 £410 -
Isle of Man - 2 £388 -
Wales - 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 11 (9.57%) Confluence
2 1 (0.87%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.87%) Appian
2 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (2.61%) Windchill
2 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.87%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (2.61%) ENOVIA
1 3 (2.61%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.87%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 14 (12.17%) Azure DevOps
2 13 (11.30%) Azure
3 6 (5.22%) AWS
3 6 (5.22%) SaaS
4 2 (1.74%) IaaS
4 2 (1.74%) PaaS
5 1 (0.87%) Boomi
5 1 (0.87%) BrowserStack
5 1 (0.87%) dbt
5 1 (0.87%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (0.87%) GitHub
5 1 (0.87%) Miro
5 1 (0.87%) OCI
5 1 (0.87%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.87%) Sauce Labs
5 1 (0.87%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.48%) TCP/IP
2 1 (0.87%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (9.57%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.61%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.74%) Oracle BI EE
3 2 (1.74%) Oracle Database
3 2 (1.74%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.87%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.87%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 30 (26.09%) TestRail
2 29 (25.22%) JIRA
3 17 (14.78%) Selenium
4 11 (9.57%) Cucumber
5 9 (7.83%) Git
5 9 (7.83%) JMeter
6 7 (6.09%) Jenkins
7 6 (5.22%) JUnit
8 5 (4.35%) SpecFlow
9 4 (3.48%) FitNesse
9 4 (3.48%) Visual Studio
10 3 (2.61%) Appium
10 3 (2.61%) LoadRunner
10 3 (2.61%) SoapUI
10 3 (2.61%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (1.74%) Cypress.io
11 2 (1.74%) TeamCity
11 2 (1.74%) TestNG
11 2 (1.74%) WebDriver
11 2 (1.74%) Zephyr
General
1 41 (35.65%) Social Skills
2 27 (23.48%) Finance
3 16 (13.91%) Public Sector
4 15 (13.04%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (6.96%) Telecoms
6 5 (4.35%) Electronics
6 5 (4.35%) Marketing
7 4 (3.48%) Automotive
7 4 (3.48%) Banking
7 4 (3.48%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.61%) Back Office
8 3 (2.61%) Front Office
9 2 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.74%) German Language
9 2 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.74%) Military
9 2 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.74%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.74%) Spanish Language
10 1 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 43 (37.39%) Analyst
2 37 (32.17%) Test Analyst
3 27 (23.48%) Test Manager
4 18 (15.65%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
5 14 (12.17%) Test Engineer
6 10 (8.70%) Tester
7 8 (6.96%) Lead
7 8 (6.96%) Senior
8 6 (5.22%) Test Leader
9 5 (4.35%) Functional Analyst
9 5 (4.35%) Functional Test Analyst
9 5 (4.35%) QA Analyst
9 5 (4.35%) QA Tester
10 4 (3.48%) Systems Engineer
10 4 (3.48%) Systems Test Engineer
10 4 (3.48%) Test Specialist
11 3 (2.61%) Performance Engineer
11 3 (2.61%) Senior Test Analyst
11 3 (2.61%) Unix Engineer
11 3 (2.61%) Unix Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (7.83%) Web Services
2 4 (3.48%) REST
3 3 (2.61%) .NET
3 3 (2.61%) Playwright
3 3 (2.61%) XML
4 2 (1.74%) SOAP
5 1 (0.87%) HTML
5 1 (0.87%) Middleware
5 1 (0.87%) Node.js
5 1 (0.87%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.87%) RESTful
5 1 (0.87%) Spring
5 1 (0.87%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.09%) Life Science
2 5 (4.35%) Management Information System
2 5 (4.35%) NHS
3 4 (3.48%) Virtual Team
4 3 (2.61%) Mobile App
5 2 (1.74%) Algorithms
5 2 (1.74%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.74%) Product Ownership
5 2 (1.74%) Reinsurance
6 1 (0.87%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.87%) Digital Media
6 1 (0.87%) IVR
6 1 (0.87%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.87%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.87%) PMI
6 1 (0.87%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 11 (9.57%) Linux
2 7 (6.09%) Unix
3 4 (3.48%) Windows
4 2 (1.74%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.87%) Android
5 1 (0.87%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (57.39%) Agile
2 57 (49.57%) Test Automation
3 53 (46.09%) Test Management
4 48 (41.74%) Software Testing
5 40 (34.78%) Test Strategy
6 30 (26.09%) Problem-Solving
7 27 (23.48%) Continuous Integration
8 24 (20.87%) Defect Management
9 23 (20.00%) End-to-End Testing
10 22 (19.13%) Test Scripting
11 21 (18.26%) Functional Testing
11 21 (18.26%) User Acceptance Testing
12 20 (17.39%) Waterfall
13 16 (13.91%) Continuous Improvement
13 16 (13.91%) DevOps
13 16 (13.91%) Integration Testing
14 14 (12.17%) SDLC
15 13 (11.30%) Test Planning
16 12 (10.43%) CI/CD
16 12 (10.43%) Performance Testing
Programming Languages
1 21 (18.26%) SQL
2 12 (10.43%) Python
3 9 (7.83%) Java
3 9 (7.83%) JavaScript
4 8 (6.96%) C#
5 6 (5.22%) Shell Script
6 4 (3.48%) TypeScript
7 3 (2.61%) C++
8 2 (1.74%) Kotlin
8 2 (1.74%) VBA
8 2 (1.74%) VBScript
9 1 (0.87%) Swift
9 1 (0.87%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 47 (40.87%) Security Cleared
2 41 (35.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 28 (24.35%) ISEB
4 25 (21.74%) DV Cleared
5 24 (20.87%) Degree
6 21 (18.26%) SC Cleared
7 10 (8.70%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (6.09%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 5 (4.35%) Master's Degree
10 4 (3.48%) HNC
11 3 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (2.61%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.74%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (33.04%) QA
2 6 (5.22%) HL7
3 2 (1.74%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.74%) Def Stans
3 2 (1.74%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 3 (2.61%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (2.61%) HP ALM
2 2 (1.74%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 18 (15.65%) Oracle
2 9 (7.83%) SAP
3 5 (4.35%) Microsoft
4 3 (2.61%) BT
4 3 (2.61%) HP
4 3 (2.61%) PTC
4 3 (2.61%) Siemens
5 2 (1.74%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.87%) Adobe
6 1 (0.87%) Ariba
6 1 (0.87%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.87%) Citrix
6 1 (0.87%) Dell
6 1 (0.87%) Genesys
6 1 (0.87%) Guidewire
6 1 (0.87%) Perfecto Mobile
6 1 (0.87%) ScienceLogic
6 1 (0.87%) Workday