May 28, 2025
These “Adulting 101” courses teach everything that traditional math and science classes do not.
While Gen Z leads a new tech-driven era, many still feel they lack crucial life skills that AI cannot yet fix.
To become ready for when life does take its toll, some have enrolled in ‘Adulting 101’ classes to learn self-sufficiency and independence. Although past generations can draft a monthly budget or successfully grocery shop, some members of Gen-Z feel a bit stifled in this department.
“I don’t know how to change a tire…I don’t have a car at all…I don’t know how to sew. I don’t know how to do a lot of things, other than cooking,” expressed Aldhen Garcia, a freshman at Canada’s Toronto Metropolitan University, according to CBC Radio.
From hands-on skills like fixing a flat tire to financial sense like paying off credit cards, these Adulting 101 classes hope to cover all the basics. Financial literacy remains a top priority for many enrolled as well.
“I think it’s so important that children are taught financial literacy. A lot of stuff involves money,” added Garcia.
Now, students across Canadian colleges, such as the University of Waterloo, can opt into these crash courses to gain a step ahead in adulthood. The class aims to fill in the gaps that traditional math and science courses do not teach, such as essential cooking skills and how loans work.
Older generations were taught the basics in their grade school curricula. However, as classes began to focus less on home economics and more on AP Calculus, students are learning less about essential life skills.
“We send them off to adulthood without other skills. If they’re not learning how to make decisions on their own and solve problems, that can be challenging,” shared Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University.
As today’s co-eds call for more classes focusing on sustaining oneself in the “real world,” some colleges are rising to the occasion. However, the real work starts much earlier than higher education.
While Waterloo University and other colleges hope to fill in the gaps, the need to learn adulting skills must begin in one’s household. Otherwise, the trend of Gen-Z adults staying with their parents longer is expected to continue rising.
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