Underlying and extended data for: Bridging the policy–practice gap in technical and vocational education and training in South Sudan: a mixed-methods study of implementation barriers and reform pathways

This dataset supports a mixed-methods study of implementation barriers in South Sudan's technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector.It contains the anonymised individual-level responses to a structured survey of TVET stakeholders (n = 51), administered through Google Forms and open from 25 June to 24 July 2025, together with a full codebook, the survey instrument, the semi-structured interview guide, the participant information sheet and consent form template, the thematic coding framework applied to the qualitative data, and completed STROBE and COREQ reporting checklists.Respondents were recruited purposively through TVET institutional contacts and professional networks. The sample is not statistically representative: it is concentrated in Juba, Central Equatoria State, weighted toward learners, and includes seven respondents resident outside South Sudan at the time of response.Three features of the data require care and are documented in the codebook. First, the item asking whether work obtained was directly related to training was shown to all respondents except those reporting that they had not secured work,so its denominator (n = 35) mixes respondents who were in work with respondents who were not; it should be read by employment-status group rather than pooled. Second, the item on specific improvements attributed to TVET policy was answered by 41 respondents, and automated Google Forms summaries of this survey report "None" as 12 responses by counting the 10 non-responses in that category; the true count is 2. Third, one respondent did not name an institution.Personal identifiers have been removed. The original contact field, which held email addresses and telephone numbers for 49 respondents, is not deposited in any form. Submission timestamps have been reduced to dates. Free-text responses have been screened and any residual contact details replaced.Interview and focus group transcripts are deposited separately under restricted access, in accordance with a condition of the study's ethical approval; see the related record.