Trade School is a grassroots school that brings people together to exchange knowledge and skills with bartering at its heart. Teachers deliver lessons ranging from photography to philosophy in exchange for services, actions or items from students.
The idea is simple: share a skill, some knowledge or a talent in a single class in person or online, in exchange for small barter items from your learners.
Trade School began in New York in 2009, with sessions since being held across the globe. It was developed by three of the five co-founders of the bartering network OurGoods.org, Louise Ma, Rich Watts and Caroline Woolard.
Are you accomplished at crochet? An experienced urban hen keeper? Or an inspiring spoken word artist? A talented designer?
Whatever your skill, knowledge or talent we can guarantee you could make someone’s day by sharing it.
You’ll have support to prepare your class, hosting and tech support from a friendly Trade School Organiser, and curious people keen to learn from you and meet each other.
Your class can be about pretty much anything and can be structured in any way you like.We suggest that online classes range from 30 to 90 minutes in length.
Trade School is open to all. Learners and teachers are all ages, so all classes must be family friendly… though some practical classes will appeal to little ones more than perhaps some knowledge based classes.
You can choose a limit on the number of learners who can sign up for your class. It might be up to 5 people, or over 20. Choose what feels right for you, and the class you are offering.
Making your list of barter items will perhaps be the most challenging part of offering to teach a Trade School class!
When we run Trade School offline (in lovely community-friendly spaces) we ask teachers to create a list made of 3 kinds of barter items: