Lethbridge College’s LC Extension is southern Alberta’s learning solution partner, helping businesses identify and solve their needs. To support this, LC Extension has added two new key team members who are experienced in working with people to create real-world solutions that make a difference.
Ryan Mennie joins LC Extension as a project facilitator following a prominent 30-year radio career, while Scott Elford has been named employer partner outreach lead.
“Ryan and Scott are LC Extension’s two-pronged team for working with businesses and creating solutions and training opportunities that work specifically for that business,” says Jason Donkersgoed, Director, LC Extension. “They are passionate about people and are skilled at really digging into what their needs are and connecting them with Lethbridge College’s wide breadth of expertise. Ryan is uniquely connected to this community because of his time in radio, while Scott’s background has seen him work in a variety of industries, which I think make them both extremely well qualified for the LC Extension team.”
Mennie is a 1992 graduate of the college’s Communication Arts program and most recently worked with Lethbridge’s Vista Radio stations as program director, music director and on-air host at 98.1 2Day FM in Lethbridge. He also brings experience of working on large-scale community building projects as he was a city councillor in Campbell River, B.C., from 2008 to 2014. With LC Extension, his role is to work with the college’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Innovation to create and implement custom training solutions for LC Extension’s clients.
“A lot of organizations have understood the value in upskilling or re-skilling their employees, instead of hiring new,” says Mennie. “Through LC Extension, we can offer that training and align it with our college’s core competencies, such as leadership, relationship building, accountability, agility or resilience. This work lets us meet the specific needs of an organization and help make it stronger and more sustainable.”
Elford is also a Lethbridge College graduate, earning a Business Administration diploma in 2009 along with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Lethbridge. He has worked in different roles for a variety of companies over the past decade, but he says the connective tissue of his experiences is he has always worked closely with other people. Connecting people is what he is doing at LC Extension as the first contact point for organizations looking to use LC Extension’s services.
“When I first start working with an organization, it’s just a conversation to figure out what their needs are,” says Elford. “I want to find out what they see as their priorities or their challenge areas, or their growth opportunities. I want to connect with them and really drill in to find out what they need and then we can start working to create the solution. But first, it’s all about that connection.”
Mennie and Elford joined LC Extension in late 2021 and are part of the robust team working to meet the needs of businesses and organizations in southern Alberta and beyond. LC Extension has both custom and on-going training solutions for both organizations and individuals. To learn more visit LCExtension.ca.