When it comes to specific practical life skills (cooking, laundry, cleaning), and helping a friend in distress, this year’s cohort are less confident than last year’s. Figure 20: Thinking about your educa琀椀on of the past two years, which of the following opportuni琀椀es would you have liked? 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Figure 19: Percentage of applicants that agree they are con昀椀dent about key life skills, comparison between 2024 and 2023 The opportunity to learn more life skills 51% 100% 90% The opportunity to do 88 more projects on topics 42% 80% 84 82 82 that interest you 79 80 77 79 70% The opportunity to do more volunteering or 41% 60% 64 63 work experience 50% The opportunity to take part in more ac琀椀vi琀椀es 34% 40% such as art, music or sport 30% The opportunity to study more subjects 29% 20% 10% 0% About half (51%) of applicants would have liked to learn more life skills as part of their Cooking a meal Washing your Cleaning your Managing a Helping a friend education over the past two years. There was also support for an enriched curriculum laundry living space conflict with in distress with more projects, work experience, arts and sport. There was, however, limited housemates support for learning a broader range of academic subjects. 2023 2024 When asked how they have learned their skills, half of all applicants learned practical skills from their parents (female applicants significantly more than male). However, when it comes to the relationship skills (managing conflict, helping a friend in distress) only 22% have learned these from parents. Almost a third (29%) are self-taught and 20% have learned from friends. A minority (7%) have learned these skills from social media, rising to 9% among male applicants. Unite Students | Applicant Index Report 34