A core innovative element of our project is the creation of an experimental data warehouse (EDW) linking different databases recording information on tertiary education and labor market careers. The EDW will contain longitudinal information for entire cohorts of entrants from university enrollment to degree attainment or withdrawal, as well as their subsequent occupational history.

The starting point is the data of the National Student Registry (ANS-Anagrafe Nazionale Studenti) for the University of Turin (UNITO). The National Student Registry, established 15 years ago on an experimental basis, has become the main official repository of information on students’ careers in tertiary education in Italy. Due to a special data release agreed with the Ministry of Education, the EDW includes also the complete careers of the students first matriculated at UNITO and that later moved to other universities. Moreover, the University of Torino has agreed to collect information on parental educational and occupation, so we now have data on families’ social background that allows to study social inequalities in university students' careers.

The information on the academic careers of graduate students derived from the National Student Registry are then linked to the data provided by Almalaurea (a Consortium of Italian universities created in 1994 that now includes the majority of the Italian universities) collecting data on the university experience and labor market outcomes at 1-5 years from degree attainment.

This combined longitudinal data set is further augmented with information coming from two administrative data sources. The first is the Employment Information System of Public Employment Services of the Piedmont region (SILP), collecting data on subordinate work. The second is the data of the Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, collecting data on entrepreneurial positions and the firms’ history. The information provided by these data sources is available for both university graduates and students who eventually withdrew from university before degree attainment.