COUNTY council Trading Standards officers have received cultural awareness training from the Ethnic Minority Business Service.

The aim of the three two-and-a-half hour sessions was to increase awareness of cultural differences within the various minority groups, including religious, linguistic, and social.

Trading Standards officer Brian Yendole said: "The training was appropriate for us.

"We gained a greater understanding of cultural sensitivities."

The lectures included descriptions of the ethnic minority groups in Oxford.

The Ethnic Minority Business Service's latest Newsletter says: "With Britain today definitely a multi-ethnic society, with 2.7m of its population of non-European origin, it is encouraging to note the lead taken by Trading Standards in attempting to understand ethnic distinctiveness."

The Service is a non profit-making company, established in Oxford in 1988 to help people from diverse cultures into employment.

It is mainly funded by the Heart of England Training and Enterprise Council and by Business Link.

Manager of the Service Shaila Srinivasan, said: "The idea of the course was to move away from merely avoiding discrimination. We wanted to promote a climate of cultural inclusiveness."

Story date: Monday 01 March

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