For young people, contemplating career options can be bewildering. It can be hard even to know what opportunities are available.

Many school leavers enrol at university by default. It is a well-trodden path. In the past, university degrees reliably led to reasonably well-paid work.

There is no guarantee that this will continue to be so. Many occupations for which university has prepared young people in the past may be largely taken over by AI.

There is no complete solution to the career dilemmas facing young people. Things will continue to change in unpredictable ways. But one thing that would certainly help is better information about the opportunities that currently exist.

A few weeks ago in this newsletter, I suggested an online tool to help young people make informed decisions about post-school options. Shortly after that, I heard from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). It turns out they have already created that tool.

Tahatū is a ‘career navigator’ website that enables young people to explore more than 800 career ideas. It helps them choose subjects for their senior secondary years and plan their post-school study.

Careers are organised into twelve broad categories, from Arts, Media and Design, to Transport and Supply. Each broad category is broken into subcategories, each with a list of specific careers. There is a description of what each career entails, its income distribution, what qualifications are required, and how long it takes to qualify, and what the fees would be.

For example, Aerospace Engineers oversee the design, construction and testing of aircraft, satellites and spacecraft. They need either a Bachelor of Engineering degree or an apprenticeship in aeronautical engineering.

Aerospace Engineers must gain certification from the Civil Aviation Authority and register as chartered professional engineers with Engineering New Zealand. The usual salary range is from $81k-$141k, with some engineers earning up to $175k.

There is even a link from each career page to positions advertised on Seek and Trademe. That gives an indication of the current demand for each occupation.

Tahatū cannot predict the future. It cannot tell young people what work will be available in even a few years’ time. But what it does, very well, is to capture the current scope of work. Guided by parents and careers counsellors, it can help young people navigate a challenging life transition.

I highly recommend Tahatū to all young New Zealanders wondering what to do with their lives.

Voting opens today in the most important election of 2026. And no, this is not the General Election.

I am talking about Forest & Bird’s ‘Bird of the Year’. Run annually since 2005, it has become a fixture in New Zealand’s calendar.

This year comes with a twist. It is election-themed, starting with an electoral system inspired by MMP. There are bird votes and party votes. Thankfully, they are combined, so overhang seats are not possible.

The seventy-odd birds stand for six parties, each with a manifesto. Sorry, a ‘manu-festo’, manu being te reo Māori for bird. And those manu-festos may remind you of certain human parties.

The Tree Birds run on roots. “Unlike certain offshore parties who disappear across the horizon for months at a time, Tree Birds believe in putting down roots and sticking around for the long haul,” they proclaim. I think I have heard that before, if not from a bird.

The Floor Birds, meanwhile, speak for “the flightless battlers” and campaign under “Ready to take the floor... again.” So yes, for some birds, too, this is not their first rodeo.

The Shy Birds party is my personal favourite. Its slogan is “Once bittern, twice shy”, the bittern being a bird rarely seen. It warns against underestimating “the quiet caucus”. National’s failed coup has given that a completely new relevance.

And yet, policy trouble is on the horizon, especially for migratory birds.

This week, the kūaka, the bar-tailed godwit, will land in New Zealand after flying 11,000 kilometres from Alaska non-stop. Luckily, it stays with us for six months, clearing ACT’s proposed rule that residents spend 730 days here in every five years. Which means it has the right to return next year.

Then there is the shining cuckoo, also migratory. It has found an ingenious way to circumvent the foreign buyer ban by laying its eggs in the grey warbler’s nest. Whether the warbler can then claim New Zealand First’s $45,000 Kiwi Kids Grant is unclear.

Voting is not restricted to citizens, and we know where this can lead. In 2023, US late-night host John Oliver hijacked the competition and delivered 290,000 votes from around the world to the pūteketeke.

In politics at least, birds will always hold a natural advantage over us humans: every candidate is a left-winger and a right-winger at once.

And with that, the campaign season is off to a flying start.