South Africa has made progress in improving skills and giving young people the opportunities to meet their aspirations.

This is the view of higher education and training minister Naledi Pandor, who said there had been questions about whether South Africa was preparing itself properly to manage shifts in the types of skills and work that would be part of the fourth industrial revolution.

"The successful surgery at the Steve Biko Hospital yesterday [Wednesday] highlighted the immense innovative capacity we have in South Africa," Pandor said at the National Skills Conference in Boksburg on Thursday.

Pandor was referring to an operation by a team from the University of Pretoria which conducted the world’s first surgical procedure using 3D-printed middle ear bones. This surgery could be the answer to conductive hearing loss and middle-ear problems.

Pandor said that as part of its responsibility to identify skills needs in South Africa, the department had developed a list of occupations that were in high demand.

"Occupations in high demand are defined as those that show relatively strong employment growth and/or are experiencing shortages in the labour market, or which are expected to be in demand in future."