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A current problem faced in South Africa is that university graduates are weak and underprepared for the work environment. The purpose of this study was to assist students in bridging the aforementioned gap and to ease the transition from theory to practice. The aim of the study was to critically analyse the development and implementation of the integrated project. This study targeted first-year (Extended Curriculum Programme) students, who had been identified as being underprepared for higher education. The factors that initiated the design and development of the integrated project were the South African Qualifications Authority, Critical Cross Field Outcomes and the University of Technology's National Diploma in Cost and Management Accounting exit level outcome, which promote lifelong learning. The integrated project was an authentic assessment which required students to transfer their theoretical knowledge obtained in the classroom to assist small businesses within the community. Academics should be encouraged to use authentic problems in the designing of assessments which will promote student-centredness and lifelong learning. With the continuous engagement of an integrated project, these first-year underprepared students will be better equipped to adjust and excel in the work environment. ARTICLE HISTORY

Every sector in the twenty-first century makes use of technology for its activities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and higher education institutions are not exceptional. However, the cohorts enrolled in the selected higher education institution are from technologically challenged backgrounds. This suggests that in their previous schooling, technology was unemployed as a learning aid. As this may present some challenges for such students, this study aims to investigate challenges experienced by Cost Accounting 2 students who are from a technologically disadvantaged  background. To accomplish that, a quantitative approach was used since it permits surveys to be delivered to the entire impacted population while also reducing sampling error. Because of the Coronavirus, online questionnaires were sent to 400 students, but only 119 (n=119) responded. Blended learning was found to be an effective technique for learning Cost Accounting 2 since the university provided sufficient information on how to use the system. However, there was a lot of discussion about internet access, learning materials access, and library resource access. Based on the findings, blended learning is excellent for studying Cost Accounting 2 as long as the learning management system is customised such that students can navigate it effortlessly. Management must work with internet service providers to try stabilise internet connectivity in the students’ neighbourhoods. The additional study can be done using a variety of research methods and target other groups of students.

An increase in electricity production is proportional to environmental risks due to continuous energy production. The paper aims to quantitatively estimate the environmental costs and mathematically model the marginal social cost associated with the lifespan of the coal power plants. Results revealed South Africa Tier 1 company optimum level of electricity production per annum at around 2.15 gigawatts, considering the emission costs and reasonable profit. 85% of the total emissions during the combustion phase average cost of the C02 emission discharged by coal is calculated as 0.23c/KWh, 0.085c/kWh is calculated for NO2, while SO2 is 0.035c/KWh. Total emission cost represents 69.2% of the total cost of producing 1 MGW of electricity. The results confirmed the company losses to be insignificantly considerable to the evaluated environmental costs and capital investment. However, the use of this newly developed mathematical model depends on the source of energy production to confirm the feasibility and profitability of investment in coal-powered stations using environmental management accounting and marginal social cost approaches. AcknowledgmentThe authors would like to acknowledge the National Research Foundation and Durban University of Technology for financial support.

Western-centric studies on opportunity-based entrepreneurship have dominated the literature on female entrepreneurs. Existing research has also tended to focus on the experiences of women in the formal rather than the informal sector. In this article, we examine female necessity entrepreneurs' experiences of learning financial and business skills in the informal street trade in South Africa. The theoretical framework for this research, which was located within a critical feminist paradigm and used a feminist phenomenological design, drew on African feminisms, resilience, and informal learning. Phenomenological, in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of twelve women in the informal street trade in the Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal, to capture the essence of their experiences of running their businesses. The main findings showed that poor black women, especially those trading without permits in the informal street trade, faced multiple challenges, but were able to learn some of the financial and business skills necessary for survival. However, this learning was reactive, problem-centred, observation based, imitative, and partial. These findings emphasised the need for these entrepreneurs to upgrade their financial and business skills in order for their businesses to remain sustainable. The study recommended various targeted policy initiatives to support female necessity entrepreneurs.