Entrepreneurship education and training ensures economic development by enabling the creation of thriving new businesses and jobs by entrepreneurs. The Business Management Training Programme is tasked with training young entrepreneurs in South Africa. However, the youth unemployment rate has been exceedingly high in recent years. This study seeks to explore the implementation challenges being experienced by the Business Management Training Programme at the National Youth Development Agency. Using a qualitative approach, this study made use of semi-structured interviews with a carefully selected sample of those involved in the management and implementation of the Business Management Training Programme. A thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews indicated that the challenges experienced in the implementation of the programme did not stem solely from operational issues within the National Youth Development Agency, but from the conceptualisation and design of the Business Management Training Programme. On this basis, it is recommended that the National Youth Development Agency use the Design and Architecture Framework for Entrepreneurship Education and Training to conceptualise and design their own Business Management Training Programme. The study concluded that by conceptualising and designing its own programme, the National Youth Development Agency will be able to address the unique entrepreneurial education and training challenges being experienced in South Africa. / Public Administration and Management / M. (Public Administration)

In classical “triple bottom line” sustainability reporting, there have not been any clear guidelines on how companies should report on their environmental footprint. Consequently, the transparency in the environmental reporting has been low, which has resulted in greenwashing. To create reliable reporting and increase the proportion of green loans and green investments, the EU introduced the classification system EU Taxonomy in 2021. The new framework has stricter requirements on companies as they are now obligated to report on specific guidelines. These guidelines will also allow stakeholders to determine how sustainable a company is. Since the EU Taxonomy was recently launched, there has been a knowledge gap in how companies experience the framework. Also, what measures should be considered in the design of the EU Taxonomy for the implementation to be as successful as possible, based on the premise that companies should make their business model as sustainable as possible. This semi-structured interview study examines how Swedish companies experience the EU Taxonomy. The researchers interviewed eight Swedish stakeholders with great insights into the area, from the manufacturing industry (1), the Real Estate Industry (2), the Swedish Corporate Business Organizations (1), the Real Estate Industry Organizations (2), and Auditing Firms (2). The researchers could conclude that being classified as sustainable in the EU Taxonomy does not necessarily mean a company is sustainable from a scientific point of view. Nevertheless, it can be an answer to political interests. The interviewees also felt it was challenging to interpret and understand the framework and that there were necessary clarifications. Further, the EU will have to account for several activities from each industry so that companies can report on their total ecological footprint. Finally, changes in the delegated acts are mandatory for the EU taxonomy to be a successful policy instrument. / I klassisk “triple bottom line” rapportering har det inte funnits några tydliga riktlinjer för hur företag ska rapportera om sitt ekologiska avtryck. Som en följd av detta, har transparensen i hållbarhetsredovisningen varit låg, vilket har resulterat i greenwashing. I syfte att skapa mer tillförlitlig rapportering och öka andelen gröna lån och investeringar, infördes 2021 klassificeringssystemet EU Taxonomin. Det nya ramverket har skapat nya krav på företag då de nu är skyldiga att rapportera på specifika miljöbelastande aktiviteter. Dessa riktlinjer ska dessutom kunna utgöra hur hållbara de rapporterande bolagen är. Eftersom EU Taxonomin nyligen har lanserats, fanns det en kunskapslucka för hur företag upplever ramverket. Även vilka åtgärder som bör övervägas i utformningen av EU-taxonomin för att implementeringen ska bli så framgångsrik som möjligt, utifrån utgångspunkten att företag ska göra sin affärsmodell så hållbar som möjligt. Med detta i åtanke utvecklades denna semistrukturerade intervjustudie som ämnar att undersöka hur svenska företag ser på EU Taxonomin. Forskarna har intervjuat åtta aktörer från svenska: tillverkningsindustrin (1), fastighetsbranschen (2), näringslivet (1), medlemsorganisationer inom fastighetsbranschen (2) och revisionsbyråer (2). Det forskarna kunde konstatera är att det som klassas som hållbart i EU Taxonomin, inte nödvändigtvis ur ett teknikneutral och vetenskapligt perspektiv är hållbart, utan är ett svar på ett politiskt intresse. Aktörerna upplever dessutom att ramverket är svårt att förstå och att det därför är nödvändigt med förtydningar. Till sist kommer även EU behöva ta fler aktiviteter från de respektive branscherna i åtanke i de delegerade akterna, för att företag ska kunna redovisa för sitt totala ekologiska fotavtryck. Slutligen är ändringar i de delegerade akterna obligatoriska för att EU Taxonomin ska kunna bli ett framgångsrikt policyinstrument.