Guides are demanding sessions on how to practise safe sex and assemble flat-pack furniture to ready themselves for life in the 21st century.

They also want instruction on how to manage debts and reduce the size of their carbon footprint as they prepare to enter the adult world.

The demands emerged in a survey of more than 1,000 Guides by Girlguiding UK, which is striving to keep itself relevant to the lives of young women. A spokeswoman said that the movement would act on the findings and make sure that the appeal for more information on sex and money was met.

In the poll, senior Guides, who are aged over 16, said that managing money was the most important skill to master as they contemplated leaving the family home. “Practising safe sex” was placed fourth, with “assembling flat-pack furniture” eighth. Younger Guides, aged from 10 to 15, valued more traditional skills. Top of their list was “cooking a healthy meal” and “pitching a tent”, although “standing up to boys” came fourth.

The youngest Guides, aged under 10, said that they wanted to know how to surf the web safely and how to cross the road.

Liz Burnley, the Chief Guide, said that the findings would be used to shape future Guiding programmes. “As the UK’s largest youth organisation just for girls and young women, we prioritise giving girls the skills, experiences and opportunities they need to reach for new aspirations and succeed in the modern world,” she said. “But these goalposts don’t stand still, which is why we constantly ask our members what they think, so that we can continue to be truly relevant to tomorrow’s young women.”

Girlguiding has undergone several image updates over the past century in response to changing trends. In 1910 members were awarded badges for milking cows and learning to iron. There was uproar when young women were encouraged to go camping and play sport.

Guides still learn first aid and how to cook on a camp fire, but today’s members are also able to earn badges in business and industry skills, making speeches in public and mastering a computer.

Guides who took part in the new survey said the findings showed that there was an appetite for instruction in more everyday skills.

Jess Bond, 19, a Guide from Pontypool, South Wales, said: “It is interesting that managing money emerged as one of the most important skills for my age group. I suppose it reflects the fact that at this stage many of us are about to leave home and know we need to take responsibility for our finances for the first time, but are aware of the dangers of loans, top-up fees and credit card debts.”

She said it was encouraging that Guides were also aware that sex was an important issue. “The importance placed on safe sex shows that girls want to put into practice what they have been taught about sex and shows they are serious about taking responsibility in this area of their life,” she said.

She said that assembling flat-pack furniture may seem an uninspiring ambition but “we all need furniture”. She added: “No one wants to live out of cardboard boxes. It is good that girls want to know how to do it themselves and not just rely on their fathers or male friends to help them out.”

There are 500,000 girls in the Guiding movement, with a waiting list of 50,000. The numbers have not dropped since Scouts began accepting girls.

This year the movement began the Get Wise programme to train 450 older Guides to broach sensitive subjects with younger members. It covers eating disorders, stress management, binge drinking, sexual health and bullying. Organisers concluded that Guides were in a better position to talk to their peers about these subjects than adults.

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