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. 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, 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. 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