MANY of the students who have passed through Alpha Boys’ Home have gone on to become great musicians, but 14-year-old Brad hopes to take a path less travelled and become an entrepreneur with his own clothing line.

“I want to design T-shirts and I have started working towards that,” he said. “I will target tourists and locals from age 18.”

Brad is one of 11 students being trained by the Alpha Business Club which started last month. Through the club, he is being given an opportunity to increase his knowledge in screen-printing, promotions and social media marketing techniques.

Alpha Boys’ Home was started in the 1880s by the Religious Sisters of Mercy, and currently has a little under 80 boys between the ages of eight and 18 enrolled. The student population at the South Camp Road-based institution consists of boys who were placed there by the state. Apart from academics, the boys are taught numerous skills to increase their chances of self-sufficiency when they leave. These vocational skills include music, agriculture, tailoring, screen-printing and furniture making.

Brad now assists with the creation of the Alpha Wear Jamaica clothing line that was launched last year. The clothing line came first in the Pitch to Rich competition at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship – Caribbean last November, and has become increasingly popular with buyers locally and internationally.

“The entrepreneur programme teaches us when we get older how to start our own business and teaches us skills in screen-printing,” Brad said. “I am learning a lot of things and meeting new people.”

As part of his vocational training, Brad uses social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to market the AlphaWear clothing line to increase interest in the brand.

“It makes me feel good, because I think I am doing something good and learning about the world from new people,” he explained.

On Tuesdays, he goes to the Jamaica Business Development Corporation to do screen-printing and on Wednesdays he attends business classes where he is taught by a group of volunteers with knowledge in this area. Part of the requirement of the class is that they have to create a sensible business plan. On Thursdays, he helps with the promotion of AlphaWear brand and then some Fridays, he assists with photoshoots. These photoshoots are done with popular artistes like Christopher Martin, Winston ‘Yellowman’ Foster and Josey Wales for promotional purposes.

Brad will be sitting the Grade Nine Achievement Test in May of this year and hopes that he will get a good grade to attend the prestigious Wolmer’s Boys’ School. To this end, he says he is trying to study as hard as possible when he gets his library time. In addition to running his business, he also wants to become a soldier so that he can help to protect his country.

Project manager at the Boys’ home, Joshua Chamberlain, says that the school aims to formally establish an entrepreneurial culture. He explained that the business club has got a big boost through the donation of a screen printing machine from Digicel, while HEART Trust/NTA and the JBDC have been crucial to the training of the boys.

“Many of the boys are entrepreneurs just by nature, and the Sisters of Mercy are entrepreneurs just by what they have been able to achieve and maintain over the past 100 and something years,” he said.

Some of the T-shirts in the AlphaWear line.

(Photos: Bryan Cummings.)