Various global reports have identified challenges for TVET as a means by which key contradictions of the formal economy could be resolved (see OECD, 2013; UNESCO, 2012). In the context of a post-2008 world order that has left many nation states wondering how, the key challenges of economic inequality, rising poverty and increasing unemployment can be resolved. In responding to these challenges, we have to engage the real issues to which TVET is currently faced. In these times, marked by the ongoing international economic recession, and social disharmony. The pressure on TVET to respond to the international youth crisis invokes TVET to respond effectively to these imperatives by taking a long and hard look at the real questions of social justice, equity, access and social transformation critical to the next phase of TVET development internationally. It is argued that a responsive TVET context, therefore, has to actively interrogate the realities of a changing labour market, an increasingly diverse, internet savvy and globally active youth population with their associated expectations and be responsive to a global context designed for increasing marginalisation, rather than inclusion of those that, in more economically robust times, did not need to be deliberately considered.