The essay examines the enhancement of skills and competencies within the Italian public administration as a crucial aspect of recent administrative reforms associated with the NRRP. Its core argument is that the skills agenda is not limited to expanding training programmes but rather reveals a deeper tension between the growing availability of tools for planning and developing human capital—such as PIAs, syllabi, digital, environmental, and transversal frameworks—and the persistent continuity of recruitment, evaluation, and personnel management models that are not always consistent with an administration orientated toward public value. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines administrative law, business economics, and public governance, the paper distinguishes between technical specialists' competencies in digital, accounting, and green transitions and the soft skills necessary for organisational responsiveness.