Out of sight? Invisibility, meta-work and the quiet contributions of degree apprentice line managers

The need to meet the global economic and social challenges facing the UK has brought renewed engagement with workplaces as sites for learning and development. The importance of anticipating ongoing workforce transformations required for continued competitivity has underscored government activities in this area. Degree apprenticeships are designed to bring together higher education and industry, supporting contemporary organisations in innovative and digitised environments. However, responding to these challenges has brought both tensions and trade-offs, including generating new forms of unseen and unacknowledged work for professionals who supervise apprentices at the operational level. Our paper examines that ‘meta-work’ that enables other work to take place, particularly the training and development and networking required to cement apprentice learning. However, line manager efforts tend to remain unacknowledged and unseen in the workplace, as well as largely being unstudied, despite the need for recognition and support for these individuals at both organisational and policy level.