What is Tahatū Career Navigator?

Tahatū Career Navigator is the new careers planning website the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is developing in consultation with the education community, career practitioners, students and whānau.

Tahatū Career Navigator provides an interactive experience to help people figure out what kind of job they might like to do, and how they can get there. It connects information such as NCEA subjects, qualifications and career ideas in one place to help people make informed decisions.

Tahatū Career Navigator is the next generation of the careers.govt.nz website, refreshing the best of its content, tools and functions.

Tahatū Career Navigator is an important initiative under the National Careers System Strategy and Action Plan.

Read the National Careers System Strategy

Read the Action Plan

What does Tahatū mean?

The name Tahatū means ‘horizon’, especially in relation to the sea, and reflects our focus on a lifelong learning journey, heading towards the future.

The Tahatū Career Navigator logo depicts Ngā hau e whā, the four winds. The changing winds were the tohu (signs) our ancestors read to guide them. Tahatū Career Navigator will help users read the signs around them as they navigate their career journey.

How do you pronounce Tahatū?

We’ve created a short video with a simple guide to give people confidence when saying Tahatū.

Video transcript: How to pronounce Tahatū

Who is Tahatū Career Navigator for?

When publicly released, Tahatū Career Navigator will be for: 

• anyone who wants help finding out what career they might like to do in the future, and the steps they can take to get there
• people returning to the workforce after an absence
• people wanting a career change
• whānau, friends, school career advisers, and community or agency career practitioners.

What stage is the pilot at?

We piloted Tahatū Career Navigator with 62 secondary schools and kura kaupapa Māori between April and November 2024. The pilot enabled students, schools and kura to use Tahatū Career Navigator, while TEC received valuable feedback from a range of industry stakeholders – helping to inform improvements to website content, features, user experience and accessibility.

When will Tahatū Career Navigator be available in schools?

We started rolling out Tahatū Career Navigator to all secondary schools and kura in March 2025. The rollout is accompanied by a range of onboarding sessions, activities and resources to support teachers and career advisers to use the website and integrate it into their careers planning with students.

When will Tahatū Career Navigator be launched to the public?

We’ll be launching Tahatū Career Navigator to all New Zealanders later in 2025. In preparation for this wider launch, we’ll continue to make a range of content and feature updates to the website.

What happens to careers.govt.nz?

While careers.govt.nz has served millions of New Zealanders over the last 20 years, technology has evolved. Tahatū Career Navigator offers an updated platform to support new, interactive careers planning technology.

Careers.govt.nz will be decommissioned towards the end of 2025 following the public launch of Tahatū Career Navigator.

If you’re a career adviser or practitioner and have a question about the transition from careers.govt.nz to Tahatū Career Navigator, please email us at customerservice@tec.govt.nz.

Who do I contact if I have other questions?

If you have any questions about Tahatū Career Navigator, please email us at customerservice@tec.govt.nz.

For more information about Tahatū Career Navigator, see Tahatū Career Navigator.