About this plugin
TradeSchool Manager is a purpose-built student-information and gradebook plugin for trade schools, vocational programs, certification academies, apprenticeships, and hands-on training providers. Everything runs inside your own WordPress install – no SaaS accounts, no per-student fees, no monthly subscriptions for the free core.
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Why TradeSchool Manager?
Most school plugins are built for K-12 or higher-ed and bury trade-school workflows under features you’ll never use. TradeSchool Manager starts from the trade-school workflow:
- Cohort-based programs that run across school years, with a one-click rollover that copies class definitions and assignments into the new year while preserving every prior year’s grades, rosters, and attendance untouched.
- A gradebook that supports points, weighted categories, and pass/fail (because hands-on competencies aren’t a percentage).
- A global Active School Year switcher so dashboards, rosters, and gradebooks always reflect the year you’re actually working in.
- Admin-side, branded, print-ready PDF report cards and class rosters out of the box.
- Student and teacher portals as front-end shortcodes you drop onto any WordPress page – no separate app to host.
What’s in the free core
- Students & Teachers – Profiles with school-assigned Student Numbers, photos, emergency contacts, and portal credentials.
- Sponsors & Authorized Contacts – Optional accounts for family members, employers, sponsors, or other approved contacts linked to one or more students.
- Programs & School Years – Multi-year programs with enrollment, GPA computation, year rollover, and historical preservation.
- Classes & Gradebook – Points-based, weighted-category, or pass/fail grading; assignment categories; extra credit; teacher-scoped views.
- Attendance – Daily attendance tracking with per-class and per-student reports.
- Announcements – Post school-wide or class-specific announcements visible in the portals.
- Student, Teacher, and Sponsor Portals – Front-end shortcodes for grades, assignments, rosters, payments, and linked-student access.
- CSV Import/Export – Move students, classes, class enrollments, assignments, and grades without lock-in.
- Admin PDF Reports – Unified PDF engine renders administrator report cards, class rosters, and statements on your school letterhead.
- Active School Year context – One global switcher scopes every list, dashboard, and gradebook.
- Email delivery via Brevo – Built-in, optional. 300 transactional emails/day on Brevo’s free plan; automatic fallback to native wp_mail() if the daily cap is reached. You can also skip Brevo entirely and use whatever SMTP plugin you already run.
Optional paid add-ons
The free core is fully functional on its own. com and are detected at runtime – any UI tied to an add-on stays hidden when that add-on isn’t installed.
- Certificates – Auto-issued PDF certificates of completion with reminder emails.
- Reports & Transcripts – Multi-year transcripts, summary report cards, GPA, credits.
- Workshops – Short-form, year-agnostic courses with their own gradebook and completion certificates.
- Applications – Public application forms and an admissions pipeline.
- Invoicing & Contracts – Tuition invoicing, payment plans, e-sign contracts, and optional Stripe checkout.
- Custom Fields & Student Documents – Per-program metadata plus audit-logged document uploads for government compliance.
Who it’s for
- Trade schools (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, welding, automotive, construction)
- Cosmetology, esthetics, and barbering schools
- CDL, heavy-equipment, and aviation training
- Allied health, nursing assistant, and phlebotomy programs
- Coding bootcamps and short-form vocational programs
- Apprenticeship and union training programs
- Anyone running cohort-based, hands-on training out of WordPress
External services
The free plugin makes no calls to external services until you opt in to Brevo email delivery (which requires a free Brevo account and an API key). Optional add-ons may integrate with Stripe (payments); those add-ons are downloaded separately and have their own privacy disclosures.
- Brevo (optional, free core): Transactional email via the Brevo HTTP API. Only the message payload (to/from/subject/body) is sent, and only when you supply an API key in TradeSchool > Settings > Email. Brevo terms: brevo.com/legal/termsofuse. Privacy: brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy.
Support & contributing
- Product site, demos, docs: tradeschoolmanager.com
- Author: CJs Web Service – cjswebservice.com
- Issues and feature requests: through the WordPress.org support forum for this plugin