'Adulting 101' programs are helping Gen Z catch up on key life skills

Marcus Medford-Kerr · CBC Radio

· Posted: May 24, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Aldhen Garcia, a first-year pupil astatine Toronto Metropolitan University, says helium has a batch of beingness skills to learn.

"I don't cognize however to alteration a tyre — I don't person a car astatine all. I don't cognize however to sew, I don't cognize however to bash a batch of things different than cooking," Garcia told The Current.

Garcia besides has questions astir fiscal matters, similar involvement rates, mortgages and paying rent.

"I deliberation it's truthful important that children are taught fiscal literacy. A batch of worldly involves money," helium said.

Waterloo University's Director of Student Success, Pam Charbonneau, has a connection for students similar Garcia: you're not alone.

"What you're experiencing is normal. A batch of your peers are going done the aforesaid happening astatine the aforesaid time," she said.

Some post-secondary institutions person added resources similar courses and accusation sessions to assistance students larn beingness skills. Experts accidental that young people, particularly Gen Z, are missing retired on learning captious skills due to the fact that they're not fixed capable independence.

University of Waterloo created a online assets called Adulting 101 successful 2023 to springiness students entree to accusation astir important beingness skills — similar household maintenance, basal nutrition and however to navigate a market store — and assistance them negociate their responsibilities and expectations. 

Offerings astatine different universities code issues similar vocation planning, finances, archetypal assistance and maintaining steadfast relationships. 

Charbonneau says galore students study feeling anxious oregon stressed trying to navigate beingness successful post-secondary schoolhouse and that entree to resources helps normalize their experience. She besides said galore students explicit that they privation they learned these skills earlier.

Bella Hudson is 1 of those students.

"There's a batch of things that are missed successful acquisition astir erstwhile you really go an adult," said the third-year TMU student.

"I bash privation that they had classes that taught however to negociate yourself and negociate your life." 

Generational differences

Members of the Gen Z demographic, radical calved betwixt 1997 and 2013, grew up with less opportunities to larn applicable skills, according to researcher Jean Twenge. 

Twenge is simply a science prof astatine San Diego State University who researches generational differences. She argues that limiting kids' state and not teaching them applicable skills is "doing them a disservice." 

"We nonstop them disconnected to adulthood without different skills. If they're not learning however to marque decisions connected their ain and lick problems, that tin beryllium challenging," Twenge said.

Twenge is the writer of respective books, including Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future. 

"Kids are increasing up little independent, they're little apt to larn however to bash big things arsenic precocious schoolhouse students. Then they get to assemblage and they inactive don't know," she said.

In her 2017 publication iGen, she described "the dilatory beingness strategy" — the thought that radical unrecorded longer, walk much clip successful school and parents thin to person less children but nurture them much carefully. Twenge says the attack typically means kids summation independency aboriginal than successful erstwhile generations. 

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And due to the fact that students are surviving astatine location with their parents longer, she says they typically instrumentality connected less tasks portion parents grip responsibilities similar cooking, laundry oregon paying bills.

"You are conscionable much apt to beryllium financially babelike connected your parents for longer. And arsenic a effect of that, radical get joined later, they person children later, they settee into careers later," Twenge said.

According to Statistics Canada, the fig of Canadians aged 20 to 34 surviving with astatine slightest 1 genitor accrued from 31 per cent to 35 per cent from 2001 to 2021. However, the older cohort — those aged 25 to 34 — roseate from 38 to 46 per cent implicit the aforesaid clip period, signalling that Canadians are surviving astatine location longer.

Increasing intelligence wellness concerns

Twenge says she supports universities introducing methods to assistance students larn important beingness skills but that, ideally, this acquisition would statesman earlier. 

She encourages parents to determination distant from the thought held by immoderate parents that it's their occupation to bash everything for their children and alternatively person them instrumentality connected tasks similar cooking oregon laundry. 

She says her biggest interest is the emergence of slump among young people.

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A commentary published successful the Journal of Pediatrics successful 2023, which reviewed dozens of studies and reports, argues that increases successful intelligence wellness issues are attributed to declining opportunities for children and teens to prosecute successful activities independently from adults.

It says depriving young radical of independency tin lend to precocious levels of anxiety, depression, and termination among young people.

At the University of Waterloo, Charbonneau says Adulting 101's nonsubjective is to assistance students make arsenic young people, not conscionable arsenic learners. 

In summation to teaching basal beingness skills, the resources besides prioritize intelligence and carnal health, and assistance students research their ain idiosyncratic growth. The assemblage besides offers students skill evaluations to assistance them place strengths and areas they tin improve. 

Charbonneau says self-advocacy is 1 of the astir important skills students tin larn from the programs.  

"Self-advocacy is astir apt the astir important portion and astir apt wherever the spread is close erstwhile they travel in, if they truly haven't had to bash overmuch of that before," Charbonneau said.

She said students are usually grateful and relieved to person entree to these tools.

"You spot their shoulders driblet erstwhile they recognize there's really idiosyncratic and thing present to assistance maine lick my problem."