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.

Built and maintained by CJs Web Service (cjswebservice.com). Product home, demos, and documentation live at tradeschoolmanager.com.

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 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, and assignments 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. These capabilities ship as separate add-on plugins from tradeschoolmanager.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