Helping your young person master life skills

By:: University of Bradford
Published: 10 July 2024
Tagged under:: Parents and carers

Help your young person gain confidence by getting to grips with a variety of life skills.

A student standing in the Richmond Atrium on Bradford campus looking at the camera

Helping your young person become more independent before they head to university may take a bit of planning and preparation.

Making sure they have a few life skills under their belt is a great way to help them gain confidence in their daily lives. This will also help them enjoy themselves more at university.

Your young person may already be good at many or all of these skills, but we've gathered some tips and resources just in case. Sit down together with a cuppa and check in with them - are there any areas where they could use a crash course or a refresher?

Sticking to a budget

Teach your young person how to create a simple monthly budget and track their spending. Budgeting apps can help them understand their habits and where their money tends to go.

Our cost of living page provides examples of estimated typical costs for everything from accommodation to local travel, as well as information about student discounts.

Here are some helpful links to help your young person with budgeting and student discounts:

You can also encourage them to discover free activities and events on campus and in town, as well as exploring nearby parks, museums, galleries or public footpaths in the countryside.

Cooking simple, inexpensive meals

Now’s the time to get your young person cooking if they don’t already know how. Start with the basics, and help them collect a small collection of quick, simple and inexpensive recipes.

Whether they are cooking for one, or taking turns with their housemates to eat together, a bit of knowledge in the kitchen is a good way to stay healthy and keep food costs down.

We've collected a few links to websites that offer healthy, budget-friendly recipes.

Planning the food shop

Help your young person plan their food shop by helping them come up with a list of staples they’ll need for their favourite recipes, as well as what they like to drink, snack on and eat for breakfast.

Whether they plan to do a weekly big shop with their housemates or do little food shops as and when their schedule allows, making a list will help them stay on budget and reduce potential food waste.

These links provide even more recipe ideas along with tips for meal planning and making shopping lists.

A wooden cutting board with mushrooms, radishes, red onions, red, green peppers and chili peppers

Doing laundry

Knowing how to do laundry is the easiest way to keep clothes in good condition and ready for their next wearing.

Make sure your young person knows:

how to sort their clothing by colour
how much detergent to use
how to treat stains
which cycle/setting and water temperature to use
the best way to dry their clothing
how to decipher washing symbols on clothing labels

Let's face it; washing machines and washing symbols can be intimidating for everyone, so we've included these links:

Finally, remind them to check every pocket before starting the wash!

Cleaning and tidying

Like many other life skills, the best ways to clean and tidy don’t always come naturally. Arm your young person with a few tips for cleaning surfaces like floors, bathroom fixtures, kitchen counters and appliances.

Knowing how to do the hoovering, a refresher on washing dishes, and ways to stay on top of clutter will go a long way to keeping daily life a bit more manageable and pleasant for them and their housemates.

Show them your favourite cleaning products and tools so they don’t get overwhelmed by the wide variety of choices on supermarket shelves. And remind them that regular cleaning and tidying throughout the term will make it easier to tackle the dreaded year end clean.

We've gathered some links that cover a few aspects of cleaning, tidying and food safety that might be helpful: