FUTURITALIA | National Recovery and Development Program

Project Profile

Problem

Italy lacks a unified national system for classifying occupations and supporting strategic workforce planning. Currently, occupational definitions, skill requirements, and role valuations are fragmented across sectors, regions, and institutions, resulting in inconsistent standards and limited comparability across the labour market.

This fragmentation weakens Italy’s ability to forecast labour supply and demand, align education and training pathways with real economic needs, guide immigration and demographic policy, and respond effectively to social change, economic transitions, and emerging workforce shortages.

Additionally, this fragmentation contributes to an inefficient labour market, leading to youth underemployment, brain drain, waste of public resources, and the underutilization of labour market capacity, preventing it from reaching its full potential.

Project Profile

Solution

The project team proposes the FUTURITALIA National Occupational Classification (NOC) System, Italy’s first unified system for classifying and valuing work.

It provides a clear, structured way to understand every role across the economy — from administration and logistics to planning, finance, liaison, operations, and leadership.

Project Profile

Purpose

The FUTURITALIA NOC System is more than a classification tool — it is a cornerstone of economic planning, fairness, and resilience. By unifying how work is defined and valued, Italy will gain a workforce system that builds equity in the labour market, helps businesses find the right skills faster, guides immigration and temporary foreign worker policy to fill real labour shortages, and prepares the nation to adapt and respond to future challenges.

Project Profile

Scope

The FUTURITALIA NOC is a non-statutory, voluntary national reference framework designed to guide job seekers, employers, educators, and policymakers.

It does not replace existing labour laws, collective agreements, or regulatory systems, but provides a standardized, evidence-based language for describing, comparing, and valuing work across the Italian labour market.

Project Profile

Objectives

Promote Fair and Transparent Compensation

Create a standardized national reference for occupations by defining occupational levels and associated proposed minimum wage bands, promoting fair market valuation of work, reducing wage inequality, and supporting transparent compensation practices across all sectors.

Strengthen Workers’ Long-Term Security and Social Protection

Integrate occupational classifications with pension, social security, and contribution systems to enable accurate contribution tracking, improved workforce forecasting, and stronger long-term retirement and social protection outcomes.

Promote Merit-Based Growth and Career Mobility

Provide clearly defined career pathways within and across sectors, enabling workers to progress based on skills, experience, and performance, while supporting meritocracy, internal mobility, and long-term workforce development.

Align Education, Training, and Workforce Demand

Use occupational data to identify current and future skill demands and gaps, informing schools, universities, vocational institutions, and training providers so education and training programs are aligned with real labour market needs.

Support National Resilience and Crisis Readiness

Establish a structured occupational framework, inspired by the Incident Command System, that enables rapid identification and deployment of critical skills during national emergencies, crises, and large-scale recovery or development efforts.

Enable Labour Market Transparency through System Integration

Integrate the NOC with the FUTURITALIA National Job Bank, requiring employers to select standardized occupational classifications when posting positions, ensuring consistency, transparency, comparability, and improved labour market intelligence.

Inform Immigration, Demographic, and Social Development Policy

Provide an evidence-based foundation to guide immigration, temporary foreign worker programs, and demographic policy, including responses to labour shortages, population aging, and declining birth rates, ensuring workforce supply aligns with national needs.

Support Business Efficiency, Workforce Planning, and Competitiveness

Provide businesses with a standardized occupational framework that improves workforce planning, recruitment accuracy, compensation benchmarking, organizational design, and productivity, reducing hiring friction, skill mismatches, and administrative complexity while supporting sustainable business growth.

Project Profile

Information Use Notice

This document is published by the FUTURITALIA National Recovery and Development Agency to promote transparency, collaboration, and national alignment. Its content may be freely referenced, shared, and adapted for public-interest purposes, including use by businesses, employers, educators, and institutions in workforce planning, recruitment, compensation, policy development, and organizational design, provided appropriate attribution is given.

Reference

Definitions

This section defines the meaning and intended use of each document field appearing in this project proposal. These fields provide standardized identification, governance alignment, and version control across all projects.

Project NameOpen

The official name of the initiative as registered in the FUTURITALIA Projects Register. This name should clearly and concisely reflect the scope and purpose of the project and remain consistent across all related documentation, reporting, and public communications.

Project VersionOpen

Identifies the current version of the project proposal. Version numbers are used to track revisions, updates, and formal changes to the document over time. A change in version does not necessarily indicate project approval or implementation status.

Initiating PillarOpen

Indicates the FUTURITALIA Pillar under which the project is formally initiated and governed. This field establishes strategic alignment with one of FUTURITALIA’s Six Pillars and clarifies the primary national dimension—Governance, Infrastructure, Economy, Resources, Social or Environment-related—that the project supports.

Coordinating AuthorityOpen

Identifies the specific FUTURITALIA program/domain/functional area of a Pillar that is responsible for initiating and sponsoring the project. This program serves as the primary coordinating body during project development and is accountable for alignment with pillar objectives.

Document TypeOpen

Specifies the nature of the document within the FUTURITALIA documentation framework.

Publish DateOpen

The official date on which the document is released for public reference or internal use.

AudienceOpen

Identifies the intended readership of the document. A Public audience indicates that the document is written in accessible language, suitable for citizens, institutions, businesses, educators, and partners, and does not contain confidential, sensitive, or restricted information.

ProblemOpen

Defines the current national, sectoral, or systemic issue that this project seeks to address. This section should clearly describe the gap, inefficiency, risk, or unmet need that justifies the project, supported by contextual analysis rather than proposed solutions.

SolutionOpen

Describes the proposed initiative or framework that directly responds to the identified problem. This section should outline what is being proposed at a high level, without detailing implementation plans, technical design, or operational procedures.

PurposeOpen

Explains why the project exists and what it aims to achieve at a strategic level. This section should articulate the broader value, intent, and national significance of the project, including its contribution to fairness, resilience, efficiency, and long-term development.

ScopeOpen

Defines the boundaries, applicability, and limits of the project. This section should clarify: What the project covers; who it is intended for; What it does not replace or override. It should explicitly state whether the project is statutory/non-statutory, mandatory/voluntary, and how it relates to existing laws, institutions, or systems.

ObjectivesOpen

Identifies the specific, high-level outcomes the project seeks to achieve. Each objective should be clear, outcome-oriented, and measurable over time, collectively supporting the project’s overall purpose without duplicating operational detail.

Information Use NoticeOpen

Defines how the document and its contents may be used, shared, referenced, or adapted. This section establishes transparency expectations, attribution requirements, and permissible public-interest uses while protecting FUTURITALIA’s institutional integrity.