While it’s shocking that no businesses have applied to become involved in academies in the past three years, it is probably not that surprising.

In my experience, many educationalists are wary of the corporate world because they worry they are out to exploit students and their parents for marketing purposes. I also think that people believe business executives look at sponsoring an academy as another form of corporate social responsibility, where they’re required to hand over a big pile of cash in exchange for ticking a box and experiencing a nice warm feeling.

It’s rather old-school to think it’s only the job of schools to educate the future workforce and the role of business is to create the jobs for those young people. We’ve seen apprenticeships successfully bridging this gap post-16, but more has to be done before that point.

There is a divide and mutual mistrust at the heart of the reason why so few businesses have sponsored academies. But there is so much for both sides to benefit from.

Two-way street

I, and more than 1,000 colleagues, have experienced this as part of the Co-op Academies Trust. We are 18 academies across northern England with an almost equal split between primaries and secondaries sponsored by the Co-op - the largest cooperative business in the country - and we have ambitious expansion plans that will see that number grow to 40 by 2022.

The trust has demonstrated that cooperative values and principles, strong governance and the ability to leverage the support of the Co-op in areas such as brand, communications, HR, property, insurance, engagement and IT, can have a dramatic impact on school improvement.

Students also get the highest-quality work experience and mentoring from Co-op colleagues, but just as importantly, it opens their eyes to the vast array of jobs that are out there, which they would just not be exposed to at school or within their community. We’re linking on huge projects in fast-moving markets to expose our young people to new and different ways of working.

However, it is not a one-way street. Co-op colleagues serve as school governors (we have more than 50 at present), and provide mentoring and careers advice, which gives them personal-development opportunities and skills that they would not necessarily gain working in their commercial bubble. They get to think strategically, evaluate an organisation from a higher level and meet new - and very different - challenges.

The Co-op also has a purpose beyond making a profit, and supporting schools is seen as part of its community engagement and support. Indeed, a good school can do so much to enhance an area for all those living there. I’ve said before that we see academies as vehicles for regenerating communities - just as the Co-op does. As the Co-operative Group chief executive Steve Murrells states, it is a “virtuous circle”, but also a different way of running a business.

So far, I have not mentioned the government, which I believe has a pivotal role to play in bringing education and business together. As a fast-growing trust, we have almost daily contact with the Department for Education; officials there fully understand the Co-op’s rationale for sponsoring our trust and they see at first hand the success we are making of it.

Despite the strong and open relationship we have with the DfE, no one has asked me, nor any of my colleagues, to speak with other businesses about the enormous opportunities that are there for companies looking to play their part in shaping the workforce of the future.

‘Just ask’

The Co-op is getting into the classroom because it believes a business of its scale and standing has a responsibility to contribute nationally to the education of the next generation. Indeed, business needs to take its social responsibility much more seriously and step up more, so that all local communities feel the benefit. The Co-op is helping our trust make a real difference to communities in the North of England. Some have had insufficient investment over time, but, through our trust, we are trying to achieve the step-change that’s needed.

If our trust and the Co-op simply create great schools that don’t regenerate the local community because the schools attract children from outside those communities, then I think we will have failed. If we don’t provide the skills and knowledge for those young people to contribute positively to society, we will have failed. If other businesses don’t step up more and widen their responsibilities so that they support our most vulnerable young people and their families and the communities they live in, then society will have failed.

Our relationship with the Co-op is the perfect case study for businesses and academies working together. I am willing to tell that to anyone who will listen in education, business or government. They just need to ask.

Frank Norris is director of Co-op Academies Trust