• In this paper we present a survey on the change in required skills for occupations in five major European countries in the period 2019-2021. The work is conducted on job advertisement data produced by the WIH-OJA platform of Eurostat and Cedefop, using both raw natural language data and data classified according to ESCO standards. The text of the job advertisements is used to generate a language model specific to the labour market context and tested on the skills classification task. The model allows the similarity of new skills observed in 2021 and existing skills in 2019 to be measured.
• The landscape that emerges is characterised by significant differentiation between different languages and labour markets, with national specificities regarding the types of skills that are changing most and the occupations concerned. Notwithstanding language differences, our analyses provide evidence that the demand for skills in national markets tends to diversify over time, and this effect is strongest for low-skilled occupations.

JEL Classification: J24, C45, C55.
Keywords: skill requirements, skill change, online job advertisements, NLP, word embedding .

• This paper analyses the diffusion of digital competences in Italy and Europe through the development of a new indicator that measures their intensity in a granular way, distinguishing by country, region and type of employee. The proposed empirical analysis shows how the diffusion of digital competences and, more generally, digitalisation processes, do not proceed uniformly but are characterised by polarisation phenomena. In addition to the gaps between countries, there are territorial ones that, within them, widen the distance between centre and periphery. Finally, the level of digital skills differs between the different components of society, so that polarisation phenomena in the geographical sense extend to social, generational and gender ones.

JEL Classification: O14, O30, O38.
Keywords: digital skills, digital transformation, regional gaps, labour policies, employment, wage gaps.

• Employment dynamics in the European and Italian labour markets are now closely linked to the evolution of the strategy oriented towards environmental, energy and climate sustainability that the European Union has been supporting for a decade now.
• The evolution of production systems towards the ecological transition requires new skills from workers in all branches of the economy, which must be developed in conjunction with the rapid technological changes that characterise society today.
• The demand for labour in Italy over the last three years has rapidly shifted towards a substantial increase in the green skills required for new hires, with the general qualification of skills being predominantly high and medium-high.
• The ecological and digital transformation of labour demand by companies in Italy is a key element of employment dynamics for the next decade and requires structural support and accompanying measures to develop appropriate skills of the employed.

JEL Classification: J24, O32, Q55.
Keywords: green skills, employment dynamics, ecological transition.

• The quantitative and qualitative level of the human capital of young people in Italy is still too low to compete with the world's leading industrial powers. There are two main criticalities, school dropout and mismatch. Criticalities that can be countered through integrated guidance systems and a mature technical-professional supply chain.
• Mission 4 of the PNRR envisages a reform of guidance and reforms and investments in ITS (post-diploma technical courses). The PNRR entrusts companies with a key role in education and in fact recognises their responsibility, particularly in the relationship with schools and ITS.
• School guidance in Italy must evolve in the direction of a comprehensive action, integrated by the contribution of socio-economic actors, in particular enterprises. Guidance as a process of information and accompaniment of the young person to an informed choice of training and work. In this context Italian enterprises, thanks also to the support of employers' associations, co-design with schools activities that improve employability levels.
• Guidance, which is to be supported through stable school-enterprise aggregations, is the first level of a series of collaborative activities that can make up a structured and progressive training chain ranging from guidance to school-to-work alternation, possibly culminating in dual apprenticeships.
• ITS academies represent the most innovative segment of the education system in Italy that most recognises a role for companies in both teaching and governance, with excellent results in terms of employment. Reform and investment in ITS envisaged by the PNRR can lead, with the right interventions, to the emergence of a mature system that is an alternative - though not in conflict - with the university.

JEL Classification: I2, J2.
Keywords: educational policies, corporate educational responsibility, orientation, VET, Higher-VET, ITS Academy .

• The Higher Technological Institutes (ITS Academy) present several original characteristics in the Italian training panorama, capable of providing interesting contributions to the reflection on the present, but above all on the future of training for work: from the dynamism of the teaching plans, which are renewed every year in relation to the evolution of the world of work, to the role of companies in the training courses, from organisational agility, to didactic flexibility, to the level of use of new enabling technologies in the training courses.
• Starting with the presentation of a general framework on the relationship between education, training and work, then some significant data mostly deduced from the national monitoring conducted by Indire on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Merit and sample research on more than 300 students, teachers and business representatives, the article takes a snapshot of the state of development and prospects for evolution of the ITS system with a special focus on the distinctiveness of the training model.

JEL Classification: I2, J2.
Keywords: skills, ITS Academy, didactics, technology, organisation.

• Whether the topic of skills training is to be analysed from a gender perspective is a question that has not yet been addressed. The article analyses the interplay between persistent gender differences in education and training, skills acquisition and job opportunities.
• The first part identifies the social mechanisms underlying inequalities in the labour market. It highlights the paradox between the superiority of women's educational credentials and the penalisation of employment, whose strong sectoral, occupational and professional segregation affects growth opportunities and working conditions, both contractual and in terms of pay. In the second part, the article shows that the origin of inequalities also derives from the early gender divergence that is already apparent in disciplinary inclinations and the chosen course of study. In turn, these are influenced by cultural stereotypes and social expectations, and then have a knock-on effect on subsequent steps. Thus, a segregation, first and foremost educational, is configured that shapes the separate and unequal working destinies of women and men.
• A reflection on the policy implications of analysing the factors causing the gender gap in education, training and employment is presented in the third part of the article. The conclusion is that the main social investment should aim at eliminating stereotypes and gender-differentiated expectations - unhinging the mechanisms of gender segregation described above - and at rebalancing the labour market through the acquisition, mobilisation and retention of skills.

JEL Classification: J2-J7.
Keywords: occupational segregation, educational segregation, gender inequalities, labour market segmentation, skills training .