Exploring the career journey of Jemma Lester, E.ON’s first female Gas Technical Specialist.
The UK’s ambition to deliver warmer homes, clean power and lower bills for consumers and businesses is contingent on having the right people, with the right skills, in place.
As demand for products including solar panels and home batteries continues to grow, tackling the industry’s skills shortage has become one of our biggest priorities. That means re-thinking where talent comes from and creating new training and development pathways for people to build long-term careers.
My own journey in energy shows what that can look like in reality.
Talent doesn’t always follow a traditional path
A career in engineering wasn’t my original plan. Growing up, I loved practical jobs around the house and helping my dad fix cars, but I always imagined I’d become a teacher. After starting university, I quickly realised it wasn’t the right path for me.
Instead, I found myself working as an assistant manager in a pub before joining National Grid’s emergency call centre. It was there that I discovered something unexpected: a genuine passion for solving technical problems. I remember feeling frustrated when customers were being let down because there weren’t enough qualified engineers available. Rather than accept that as simply “the way things were”, I put myself forward to be trained for the job myself.
That decision changed the course of my career.
Since joining E.ON UK as its first female Gas Technical Specialist, I’ve progressed through a range of technical, operational and leadership roles. Along the way, one thing has become clear: successful engineers don’t all follow the same path.
Technical knowledge is essential, but qualities such as curiosity, resilience, communication and a commitment to learning are equally important. Those skills can be developed in many different careers and industries, which is why we need to broaden how we think about engineering talent.
As the sector continues to evolve, creating opportunities for people to retrain, upskill and move between careers will be just as important as attracting school leavers and graduates
The value of continuous learning
Importantly, learning shouldn’t stop once someone achieves a qualification or accreditation. In fact, ongoing training and development is essential for long-term career success in energy.
With over a decade in engineering and operational leadership behind me, I’ve now taken on an additional apprenticeship in HR to strengthen how I support and develop my team. It’s about becoming a better leader by deepening my understanding of people management. My experience at E.ON highlights how valuable these skills have become.
Broadening the industry’s talent pool
Alongside career-long learning, building a stronger workforce also requires widening who gets the opportunity to join it.
Engineering hasn’t always recruited from a broad talent pool, but that’s beginning to shift. As the challenges facing our sector become more complex, we need teams with a wider range of experiences and perspectives. Diverse teams don’t just mean we better reflect the communities we serve; they also help us solve problems more effectively and drive innovation.
No two people approach a challenge in the same way. Different backgrounds bring different ideas and ways of thinking, and in an industry tackling some of the biggest technical and societal challenges of our time, those varied viewpoints are a real strength.
If my own experience proves anything, it’s that careers don’t have to follow a straight line. Sometimes the best opportunities are the ones you never expected.
And that matters, because the energy transition will depend on people who come into the industry through many different routes, bringing the innovation, technical excellence and future-ready skills it demands.
