More than 10 students from Ballarat High School, Mount Clear College and Federation College got their hands dirty at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens on Tuesday as part of a two-day employment pilot program designed for students who missed out on other work experience opportunities and students from refugee backgrounds.

Co-hosting the event with the City of Ballarat, Highlands LLEN youth transitions coordinator Brendan O’Connell said the program was modeled off a similar program in Melbourne which had proved successful with students.

“We thought it was something Ballarat needed. 50 per cent of students don’t do work experience,” he said.

“So what we’re trying to do is encourage work experience.”

As part of the program the students had the chance to speak with educators and the City of Ballarat’s Parks and Gardens/Sport and Recreation teams about employment opportunities.

Mount Clear College student Muhammod Raza Hussaini said he opted to take part in the program in the hopes of helping him gain future employment.

“It is a good industry and I wanted to know more about the industry and job opportunities in Ballarat,” he said.

“I’m hoping to get a job into this industry after I complete year 12.”

Ballarat High School student Zac Wade said he hoped to share what he learnt over the two days with others.

“I chose to do this program to get more experience,” he said.

“You get to look at something different and learn a lot of new things.”

The program has been designed to take groups of students rather than one at a time over five different areas of expertise.

The program concluded on Wednesday with students taking part in hands-on and classroom activities including an analysis of roles suited to various personality types.

Later in the week a free workshop was held at Mitchell Harris Wine Bar, exploring the neuroscience behind effective youth engagement.

Tapping into the connection between trust and an ability to learn could be the key to engaging youth, according to expert and workshop facilitator Tracey Ezard.

Ballarat’s teachers, youth group leaders and community organisations took a day out to listen to the author and educator who was in town for the workshop.

Ms Ezard spoke to participants about ways to effectively communicate with youth and the importance of strong relationships.

“The idea is to create a lot of awareness about how we can support  and engage with youth by tapping into what we know about the brain,” Ms Ezard said.

“It’s professional development, that’s not your usual professional development.”

Ms Ezard delved into the brain and elaborated on the importance of relationships by explaining to participants that learning is maximised “when our brains trust”.

“The chemical that creates that comes from strong connections,” she said.

“When we sit in distress, we sit back and don’t learn as much,”

Ms Ezard said another element touched on during the day was the idea of putting youth on an equal level to adults.

“Youth who are disengaged and isolated is a huge issue for the community, this is about making connections in the community that make for a better world,” she said.

“Part of youth feeling empowered is having a voice.”

Ballarat YMCA director of communications and youth engagement Stacey Oliver said the event was a great chance to adapt ways of building relationships with youth and learning how to share that with others.

“We should be treating youth as adults,” she said.

This is the first time the workshop, which is run by Duke of Ed Victoria in partnership with Government of Victoria’s Advance program, has taken place in Ballarat.

Discovered by Ballarat’s Highlands LLEN staff while in Melbourne, youth transitions coordinator Brendan O’Connell said the workshop was an event the organisation believed would benefit the community and organised to have it brought to the region.