Teachers, AI and the missing 'well done': why praise matters for the first generation entering an AI workplace

The young people leaving school and college this year are the first to go through their teenage years with generative AI in their pockets, and the first to start work in offices, kitchens and workshops where AI tools are part of the furniture.

A lot of advice for this generation is about skills: learn to use AI, learn what it cannot do, learn a trade. All useful. But there is a more basic ingredient that gets less attention, and it is the one that decides whether a young person keeps trying at all: knowing that their effort was seen.

What the research says about feedback

Feedback is one of the most studied things in education. In 2020, John Hattie and colleagues pulled together 435 studies in a single meta-analysis. They found that feedback has a medium-sized effect on learning overall, with a lot of variation between types.

Two findings from that paper matter here:

1. Information beats applause. Feedback that tells someone something useful about the task, what worked, what to do next, does far more than general praise.
2. The effect on motivation is real but smaller and less consistent than the effect on skills. Feedback is not a magic motivation button. It has to be honest and specific to land.

So this is not an argument for telling everyone they are brilliant. Empty praise is easy to spot, and young people spot it fastest.

Where confidence actually comes from

Psychologist Albert Bandura spent much of his career on self-efficacy: the belief that you can do something. A widely cited review of the research in schools found that the most powerful source is usually mastery experience, succeeding at something genuinely difficult. Encouragement from other people ("verbal persuasion") also counts, especially when it comes from someone whose judgement you trust.

Put those together and you get a simple recipe that most good teachers and managers already follow:

• give people real challenges,
• notice when they meet them,
• say specifically what they did well.

What has changed

The problem is the middle step. Noticing has become harder.

Teachers are using AI themselves, mostly to save time on the admin that eats into teaching. In England, Teacher Tapp's polling found lesson planning (54%) and quizzes (50%) were the most common uses, with marking at 46% (Chartered College of Teaching). A Twinkl survey of about 6,500 UK teachers found 60% using AI for work.

That is not a scandal. It may well free teachers up for exactly the kind of feedback that matters. But when students suspect feedback was generated, and teachers suspect work was generated, the trust that makes recognition meaningful starts to wear thin.

In the United States, where AI detectors are common in schools, NPR reported on students who were wrongly accused of using AI and now rewrite their own sentences to satisfy the software. We cover that in more depth in When nobody believes you did it yourself.

Why this matters at work, not just at school

The first job is where a lot of young people get their first adult "well done". It might be a supervisor saying you handled a difficult customer well, or a chef saying your prep was spot on. These moments are small and they shape careers.

They are also getting rarer. Young people tell Youth Employment UK that lack of work experience is their biggest barrier to getting a job: over half said so in the 2025 Youth Voice Census, and only around a quarter had done any work experience in the previous year. Fewer first jobs means fewer first "well dones".

What good recognition looks like

For teachers, managers, parents and anyone who works with young people, a few habits make a difference:

• Be specific. "Your opening paragraph made me want to read on" beats "good work".
• Recognise the process. Effort, persistence, the second draft, the shift they covered.
• Ask before you assume. If something looks too polished, have a conversation before reaching for a verdict.
• Make it visible. A reference, a note, a word to their next employer. Recognition that travels is worth more.

A note for parents and carers

Much of this happens out of sight. A teenager who has been doubted, or simply not noticed, rarely says so. Some things worth trying at home:

• Ask about the work, not just the grade. "What part was hardest?" opens a different conversation from "what did you get?".
• Notice effort you can see. The evening they stuck at something, the shift they did not want to do but did anyway.
• Keep the drafts. If your child is ever questioned about whether work is their own, notes, earlier versions and document history are the best evidence. Encourage them to keep them as a habit, not out of fear.
• Point them at things that are unmistakably theirs. Sport, music, making things, caring, a part-time job. These build the kind of confidence no software can question.

None of this replaces a good teacher or a good first manager. It just means a young person is less likely to go without recognition altogether.

What Jobsee is doing about it

Jobsee is built around a simple idea: a young person's application should show what they have done, in their words.

• When you build your Jobsee application, we ask about real things: school projects, sport, volunteering, caring, part-time work. We help translate them into language employers recognise, without adding anything you did not do.
• Employers get specific information, not a pile of identical CVs, which makes it easier for them to notice what is genuinely good.
• In future we want employers to be able to leave short, verified endorsements: "turned up for every shift", "trained two new starters". Recognition that a young person can carry to their next job.

The first generation entering an AI workplace will need plenty of new skills. They will also need something very old: someone who notices, and says so.