COMMUNITY groups were given a better understanding of how to run their groups as a business during a 12-week course run by East Lancashire into Employment (ELE).

The training course, entitled Mind Your Own Business, was aimed at community businesses to help them identify their skills and organisational needs and to develop strategies to address those needs.

ELE, based at Queen Street Mill, Harle Syke, Burnley, worked with two groups to brush up their business plans.

They were Green Space, a gardening project for people with mental health problems, which has sites in Burnley and Colne, and Pendle Market Research, an organisation which trains young people for jobs in market research.

ELE manager Jean Weaver said: "This new and exciting venture has led us to believe that other organisations may be interested in the unique courses we offer, which can be tailored to their own skills needs.

"We are looking at doing similar courses in the future.

"The aim of this course we've just completed was to make people who run community businesses more aware of what running a business entails and to give the people involved in their running some knowledge of the company works. We found people had more skills than the businesses were aware of."