Former Grimsby MP and now deputy chief executive of Renewable海角视频, Melanie Onn, has launched her own podcast series.
PowerOnn will go behind the scenes of the green energy sector - and it has started in her home town - with an Orsted employee.
Melanie, who lost her Labour seat in the 2019 general election as the red wall of the north fell, was appointed at the leading trade organisation as Covid hit.
And while the measures have restricted her hopes for a first year, she is using the downloadable programme to push her diversity message.
“It is short - bite-size - and intended to be coffee-break chat-style, giving a little more emphasis on the people,” she said. “We’ll be talking about some of the things happening in the industry, but also making it more accessible and relevant, trying to showcase to the next generation.
“It is a young industry as it is but I’m really focusing on the dedicated and innovative talent coming through, I want to bring them to the front and give them a platform, and hopefully demonstrate some more diversity in the sector as well. We’re starting with grimsby - so geographic diversity - and it is something I’m trying to develop while showcasing the breadth of talent already there.
“People are very interested in what it means to work in the sector and how you get into it in the first place. It will be occasional, I don’t want it to be too forced, but I’ve got people lined up so I’m looking to go monthly.”
First up is Alistair McRae, turbine technician apprentice, as two Healing School alumni were united. He told how he got into the industry, at third application, having returned to college to broaden career opportunties, with a passion for engineering.
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Ms Onn, a former Unison organiser, was elected as Grimsby’s first female MP in 2015, and was a strong force in the emerging renewables sector, hosting Westminster launches and pushing the industry in her role.
Now it is her new career.
“It has been a bit of a shift from what I was doing previously,” she said. “It has been a massive learning curve - I assumed I knew a lot - I now know that is nonsense!
“People have been so very kind, explaining more detail to me so I can get a better handle on the sector and respond to the challenges. It has all been done virtually, so it has been different - I thought I would be trudging around Westminster and getting around the country more to get a better sense of the membership, but we’re all in the same situation there.”
And she’s keeping a keen eye on developments in government too, professionally and personally, noting the promotion of Kwasi Kwarteng from ‘go-to’ clean energy minister to Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
“I was on a panel with him in my third week on the role, we have had a very good working relationship,” Melanie said. “It is great he has been promoted, except it means we lose his specific focus on energy - he really did seem to get it, but I know Anne-Marie Trevelyan (his replacement) fairly well.”