Milan Cortina, legacy of new transversal skills on major events through the 36,000 workers

In-depth knowledge of a foreign language, the ability to express oneself clearly and to be able to communicate using technological tools, but also to be able to move in multidisciplinary, multicultural, multilingual contexts. In addition to the infrastructure and facilities, there is also a legacy of skills that the workers of the Milan Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring. According to estimates by Bocconi University and Ca' Foscari, 36,000 new jobs will be created directly and in induced activities. As much for the workers as for the territories, there will be an important inheritance of skills that the event will leave in construction, event organisation, and tourism, especially in the Lombardy area and the Dolomites. Although this is a fixed-term employment, the peculiarity of the work experience within the great Olympic and Paralympic event represents a unicum in terms of professional and personal skills, a wealth of experience expendable in the labour market, with some technical skills, but above all transversal skills that are strongly demanded by the market, as explained by the research 'Beyond the Finish Line: the Legacy of Skills of Milano Cortina 2026", carried out by Randstad Italia, which is HR Partner of the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, through the Randstad Research centre. The research analysed more than 750 job advertisements published by Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 during 2023, 2024, and up to autumn 2025, with the relevant professions and skills required. A total of around 100,000 applications were received by Randstad to work on the organisation of the Games, and the analysis of the ads shows a strong attractiveness: on average, from 2023 until autumn 2025, 128 applications were received for each offer published. The most popular sector is education, training and employment services, with an average of 390 applications per open position. While most of the advertisements concern the logistics and transport sector, with about 33% of the vacancies.

As the president of the Milano Cortina Foundation, Giovanni Malagò, explained, 'the activity of the Milano Cortina Foundation is not atypical, but unique, because it can be configured as a start-up, with the difference that from the moment of its creation there is already an expiry date. That's why it's a great challenge and you need skills to overcome it'. A difficult challenge is the organisation of the Games, which 'has been aggravated by the Covid years, wars and four governments that have changed. But beyond these competences I can say that I am proud of the work done so far, even if ours is a country that if you do 199 things well, then you dwell on the one thing that comes less well,' added the former Coni president who also spoke about artificial intelligence. "Regardless that you have to use it and it has to be involved, here the experience is physical, from the volunteers, 18 thousand against ten times the demand. I am very happy with everything we have done, it is a great challenge, a challenge'. On the volunteer front, from the Milan Cortina Foundation, they explain that '133 thousand requests arrived for the 18 thousand places, all of which have already been filled. More than 95% of these 18 thousand volunteers have already completed the calendar phase and there are also 10 thousand ready reserves. Of the volunteers, 2,000 are foreigners and 2,900 out of 18,000 have declared that they are travelling specifically to experience the games. Forty-three per cent are their first experience in organising a major sporting event. As for gender and age, 64% are under 35, and 60% are women'.

"In a context in which artificial intelligence is often seen as a tool that can reduce the opportunities for learning through direct experience, the case of the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games represents the exact opposite: an intense hands-on learning experience, with a strong and lasting impact on the workers' skill set," explains Professor Emilio Colombo, Coordinator of the Randstad Research Scientific Committee. Normally it would take a long time, but in this extraordinary context "it can be achieved in a short period of time. This experience can have beneficial effects on the labour market in various ways: directly on the workers involved and indirectly on the companies and territories that will be enriched by the new knowledge. With the possibility of using the knowledge and skills acquired, especially transversal ones, as trainers, tutors or mentors at different training levels'. A fundamental part of the Games' legacy "comes to life through the people and skills they develop along the way," adds Diana Bianchedi, Chief Strategy, Planning & Legacy Officer for the Milan Cortina 2026 Foundation. The study offers clear evidence of this, because it measures what is one of the pillars of Milano Cortina 2026: leaving the country a lasting legacy of experience, skills and teamwork. Italy is an international leader for sports events and the Games will give an exceptional boost to this trend'.

Analysing the job positions and related job advertisements opened by Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 (759 job advertisements published from 2023 to September 2025), Randstad Research highlighted that for all professions there is a demand for all-round communication skills, from an in-depth knowledge of a foreign language (English), to the ability to express oneself clearly, to the ability to communicate using technological tools. Overall, hybrid and versatile professionals are sought after, able to perform their tasks across barriers, in an extremely dynamic and collaborative labour market. Participation itself in the organisation and running of the Games represents an accelerator of skills, especially transversal ones. In particular, they will develop problem solving when carrying out complex tasks to be performed in time and space constraints; teamwork skills; the ability to interact and communicate in an international and multicultural environment; stress management, carrying out numerous tasks at the same time and meeting tight deadlines.

The sector that received the most applications was education, training and employment services (an average of 390 applications per open position), followed by recreation and sports (209), cultural and entertainment services (157), tourism services (138), transport and logistics (101), digital services (81) and public utilities (50). The last place belongs to the construction sector, with an average of eleven applications per offer. By number of vacancies, on the other hand, the sector with the highest number of vacancies is transport and logistics, with approximately 33% of the vacancies. This is followed by tourism services (27.9 per cent of the offers) and recreation and sports activities (13.8 per cent). In general, tourism and recreational and sports services achieved the best match between supply and demand. Approximately 67% of the advertisements concerned administrative professions, 24.9% managerial positions, and 7.9% apprenticeships or traineeships (bearing in mind that the analysis is conducted about a year after the event began, so the figures sought are mainly medium-high level organisational figures, because the operational ones were sought afterwards).