In Latin America, elections used to be synonymous with economic and financial volatility, and social instability. Things are different now: 14 presidential elections took place in Latin America between 2012 and 2014 in a highly stable climate, creating a political space for proposing far-reaching reforms.

But the region still has profound socio-economic inequalities that, as many analyses have shown, can adversely affect growth. Although poverty and inequality have fallen in recent years as economies have grown, poverty still affects 28% of Latin America’s population (about 164 million people). It is the world’s most unequal region; the OECD report Divided We Stand reveals that the income gap between the richest and the poorest 10% is 27 to one in Mexico and Chile.

Education is the key to equality of opportunity and social progress. Despite recent improvement, only 56% of Latin Americans in the lowest income quintile attend secondary school, and only 9% continue into tertiary education.

Improving workers’ skills by strengthening links with the labour market is essential to ensure that people develop the right skills. Latin America is the region with the widest gap between the skills that societies and economies require and those that schools and universities offer. A recent report by Manpower reveals significant shortages of trade workers, engineers and production technicians.

Five of the top 10 countries where employers declare having difficulties filling jobs are from Central and Latin America: Peru (67%), Argentina (63%), Brazil (63%), Panama (58%) and Colombia (57%). In Latin America, 32% of employers use foreign talent to meet skills shortages. In Costa Rica, the transition to advanced manufacturing has increased demand for skilled professionals in technology-related disciplines, particularly at the PhD level. Yet the range of PhD programmes in science and engineering in the country remains very limited.

Similar difficulties are faced in Colombia, where the ministry of information technology and communications has identified a deficit of 15,000 telecommunication and software engineering professionals, which could rise to 90,000 by 2018. In Peru, 67% of employers declare having trouble filing positions, especially those with language skills requirements.

The scarcity of skills conditions the performance of industry in the region. The Latin American Economic Outlook 2015 shows that Latin American firms are three times more likely than south Asian firms, and 13 times more likely than Pacific-Asian firms, to face serious operational problems due to a shortage of human capital.

Car and machinery industries are particularly affected by this shortage, although they are working hard to develop training programmes to cater for it, such as Volkswagen’s training institute in Mexico. Skills shortages are also evident in some prominent Latin American firms: Pemex, Mexico’s state oil and gas company, recently declared that during the next 10 years it will have to replace a third of its workforce – roughly 50,000 workers – and look for a broader range of skills such as engineers, geologists and regulatory experts. Improving education and skills can raise labour productivity, create high-quality jobs and reduce the size of the informal economy. For this to happen, vocational education and training, as well as the ties between higher education institutions and the private sector, need to be strengthened.

The OECD skills strategy is helping countries to develop national skills policies from early childhood to adult education to help countries include vulnerable groups in the labour market such as young people and women and use existing skills more effectively (for example, by reducing skills mismatch). Each project starts by mapping the skills challenges facing a country, then identifies the actions needed to tackle them.

The project fosters close coordination among all relevant government ministries – education, employment, innovation and finance – while also strengthening engagement with employers, trade unions and civil society. Experience in the OECD’s work with Austria, Norway, South Korea, Portugal and Spain has demonstrated the benefits of a whole-of-government approach to skills.

Education, skills and innovation are key to enabling Latin America to escape the middle-income trap. Many Latin American countries remain stuck, having failed to make considerable progress in income convergence with advanced economies. In the region, only Chile, Uruguay and a few Caribbean countries are high-income countries, with annual incomes per capita of more than $12,750 (£8,433). This is very different to other countries, mainly European and Asian, which achieved sustained increases in income per capita by improving the stock and quality of education and skills, and developing an innovation-friendly environment. Resolute action is essential to ensure dynamic, equitable growth for Latin America.

• Mario Pezzini is director of the OECD Development Centre and Andreas Schleicher is director for the Directorate of Education and Skills and special adviser on education policy to the OECD secretary general. The 2015 Latin American Economic Outlook, its eighth annual edition, was jointly produced by the Development Centre of the OECD, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and CAF – development bank of Latin America

• This article was amended on 2 February 2015 to clarify that 164 million people refers to the number of Latin Americans affected by poverty, not the total population of the region