Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for MCSA qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 20 September 2024, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 678 667 871
Rank change year-on-year -11 +204 -155
Permanent jobs citing MCSA 127 145 327
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.15% 0.23% 0.21%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.52% 0.69% 0.76%
Number of salaries quoted 64 118 282
10th Percentile £28,425 £32,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £39,000 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £57,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +34.12% -
75th Percentile £55,625 £68,000 £58,438
90th Percentile £59,800 £86,125 £66,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £48,500 £42,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year +15.48% +5.00% -5.88%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCSA falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 24,291 21,060 43,231
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 29.43% 32.92% 28.12%
Number of salaries quoted 9,951 12,252 19,036
10th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £58,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% +6.36% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £76,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,750 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% +5.26%

MCSA
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing MCSA.

Salary trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 20 September 2024.

Salary histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing MCSA within the UK over the 6 months to 20 September 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -22 120 £49,250 -10.45% 33
UK excluding London -15 97 £48,500 +15.48% 24
London -9 30 £45,000 -33.58% 10
South East -15 27 £57,500 - 9
North of England +15 24 £37,000 -10.84% 4
Work from Home +9 21 £55,000 -8.33% 11
Midlands -25 16 £52,000 +31.65% 4
East of England -22 15 £50,500 +44.29% 4
Yorkshire +26 13 £37,000 -6.33% 3
West Midlands -13 10 £52,000 -5.45% 3
South West -6 8 £48,500 +4.86% 4
North West -14 8 £30,000 -27.71% 1
East Midlands -38 6 - - 1
Scotland -31 4 £47,500 -
Wales +34 3 £41,250 +23.13%
North East - 3 £29,500 -

MCSA
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 33 (25.98%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (24.41%) SharePoint
3 7 (5.51%) Confluence
4 3 (2.36%) IIS
Applications
1 14 (11.02%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.79%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (2.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.79%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 86 (67.72%) Azure
2 49 (38.58%) Microsoft 365
3 26 (20.47%) AWS
4 19 (14.96%) Entra ID
5 13 (10.24%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (9.45%) Azure AI
6 12 (9.45%) IBM Cloud
7 11 (8.66%) Azure Stack
8 10 (7.87%) OneDrive
9 9 (7.09%) Cloud Computing
9 9 (7.09%) Power Platform
10 7 (5.51%) Cohesity
11 6 (4.72%) Google Workspace
12 5 (3.94%) Twilio
13 3 (2.36%) Dynamics 365
13 3 (2.36%) Power Automate
14 2 (1.57%) Amazon EKS
14 2 (1.57%) Azure AKS
14 2 (1.57%) PowerApps
15 1 (0.79%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 47 (37.01%) Firewall
2 36 (28.35%) DNS
3 26 (20.47%) DHCP
3 26 (20.47%) SAN
3 26 (20.47%) TCP/IP
4 17 (13.39%) VPN
5 16 (12.60%) VLAN
6 13 (10.24%) LAN
7 12 (9.45%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (7.87%) NAS
9 9 (7.09%) WAN
10 8 (6.30%) Network Security
10 8 (6.30%) Wireless
11 7 (5.51%) FTP
11 7 (5.51%) Internet
11 7 (5.51%) Intranet
12 6 (4.72%) SSL
12 6 (4.72%) VRRP
13 5 (3.94%) Broadband
13 5 (3.94%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (21.26%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.72%) Power BI
3 2 (1.57%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (1.57%) MySQL
4 1 (0.79%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 8 (6.30%) JIRA
General
1 41 (32.28%) Social Skills
2 16 (12.60%) Finance
3 15 (11.81%) Public Sector
4 14 (11.02%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (6.30%) Legal
5 8 (6.30%) Retail
6 7 (5.51%) Telecoms
7 5 (3.94%) Back Office
8 4 (3.15%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (2.36%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.57%) Banking
10 2 (1.57%) Law
10 2 (1.57%) Marketing
11 1 (0.79%) Advertising
11 1 (0.79%) Military
Job Titles
1 16 (12.60%) Analyst
2 15 (11.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 11 (8.66%) IT Engineer
4 10 (7.87%) Lead
4 10 (7.87%) Network Manager
5 9 (7.09%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 9 (7.09%) Technical Support
6 8 (6.30%) Consultant
7 7 (5.51%) 3rd Line Support
7 7 (5.51%) Customer Engineer
7 7 (5.51%) Customer Service Engineer
8 6 (4.72%) Senior
8 6 (4.72%) Support Engineer
8 6 (4.72%) Systems Engineer
8 6 (4.72%) Technical Consultant
9 5 (3.94%) Architect
9 5 (3.94%) Solutions Architect
9 5 (3.94%) Technical Analyst
10 4 (3.15%) Junior
10 4 (3.15%) Systems Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.36%) .NET
2 2 (1.57%) FIX Protocol
2 2 (1.57%) HTML5 Canvas
2 2 (1.57%) REST
3 1 (0.79%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 17 (13.39%) Hybrid Cloud
2 14 (11.02%) Replication
3 12 (9.45%) Blockchain
3 12 (9.45%) Distributed Systems
4 11 (8.66%) Management Information System
5 9 (7.09%) Data Centre
5 9 (7.09%) Enterprise Cloud
5 9 (7.09%) Enterprise Storage
6 7 (5.51%) Data Protection Act
6 7 (5.51%) Onboarding
6 7 (5.51%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (4.72%) Private Cloud
8 4 (3.15%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (3.15%) Wiki
9 2 (1.57%) Fat Client
9 2 (1.57%) PKI
9 2 (1.57%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.57%) Thin Client
10 1 (0.79%) Clustering
10 1 (0.79%) Raspberry Pi
Operating Systems
1 75 (59.06%) Windows
2 47 (37.01%) Windows Server
3 42 (33.07%) Linux
4 18 (14.17%) Windows Server 2012
4 18 (14.17%) Windows Server 2019
5 14 (11.02%) CentOS
5 14 (11.02%) Debian
5 14 (11.02%) Windows Server 2016
6 12 (9.45%) Alpine Linux
6 12 (9.45%) Windows 10
7 7 (5.51%) Windows Server 2008
8 4 (3.15%) Windows Vista
9 3 (2.36%) Mac OS X
9 3 (2.36%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.79%) Unix
10 1 (0.79%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.79%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (36.22%) ITIL
2 37 (29.13%) Customer Service
3 21 (16.54%) Cybersecurity
3 21 (16.54%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (14.96%) Disaster Recovery
5 17 (13.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 17 (13.39%) Task Automation
6 16 (12.60%) Kalman Filter
6 16 (12.60%) Storage Management
7 15 (11.81%) ITSM
8 13 (10.24%) CI/CD
8 13 (10.24%) Data Protection
8 13 (10.24%) DevOps
9 12 (9.45%) Artificial Intelligence
9 12 (9.45%) Co-Creation
9 12 (9.45%) Data Science
9 12 (9.45%) Functional Testing
9 12 (9.45%) Migration
9 12 (9.45%) Separation of Concerns
9 12 (9.45%) Technology Transformation
Programming Languages
1 24 (18.90%) SQL
2 21 (16.54%) PowerShell
3 9 (7.09%) Java
4 3 (2.36%) C#
4 3 (2.36%) JavaScript
5 2 (1.57%) Bash
5 2 (1.57%) Python
Qualifications
1 127 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 49 (38.58%) MCSE
3 42 (33.07%) Degree
4 28 (22.05%) Azure Certification
5 26 (20.47%) CCNA
5 26 (20.47%) Cisco Certification
6 25 (19.69%) MCP
7 13 (10.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 10 (7.87%) A+ Certification
8 10 (7.87%) CCNP
8 10 (7.87%) Network+ Certification
9 9 (7.09%) Dell Certification
10 7 (5.51%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (5.51%) Master's Degree
11 5 (3.94%) AWS Certification
12 4 (3.15%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 3 (2.36%) CREST Certified
13 3 (2.36%) Server+ Certification
14 2 (1.57%) GIAC
14 2 (1.57%) Linux+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (10.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (6.30%) Cyber Essentials
2 8 (6.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 7 (5.51%) SLA
4 3 (2.36%) IASME
5 2 (1.57%) GDPR
5 2 (1.57%) ISO 9001
5 2 (1.57%) NCSC
5 2 (1.57%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.79%) NIST
System Software
1 57 (44.88%) Active Directory
2 52 (40.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (30.71%) Hyper-V
4 18 (14.17%) vSphere
5 14 (11.02%) Docker
6 13 (10.24%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (5.51%) Firmware
7 7 (5.51%) VMware Workstation
8 5 (3.94%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (1.57%) KVM
10 1 (0.79%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.79%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.79%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 14 (11.02%) Kubernetes
1 14 (11.02%) Terraform
2 13 (10.24%) SCCM
2 13 (10.24%) WSUS
3 8 (6.30%) SCOM
4 5 (3.94%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (3.15%) ZABBIX
6 2 (1.57%) Ansible
6 2 (1.57%) Progress Chef
6 2 (1.57%) Puppet
6 2 (1.57%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.79%) SCOrch
7 1 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 94 (74.02%) Microsoft
2 59 (46.46%) VMware
3 30 (23.62%) Cisco
4 23 (18.11%) HP
4 23 (18.11%) IBM
4 23 (18.11%) Veeam
5 18 (14.17%) Citrix
6 16 (12.60%) Dell
6 16 (12.60%) Juniper
7 15 (11.81%) Red Hat
8 13 (10.24%) NetApp
9 9 (7.09%) Fujitsu
9 9 (7.09%) Google
9 9 (7.09%) Palo Alto
10 7 (5.51%) Extreme Networks
11 5 (3.94%) Aruba
11 5 (3.94%) Bloomberg
12 4 (3.15%) LogicMonitor
12 4 (3.15%) SolarWinds
12 4 (3.15%) Sophos