July 1, 2025 • 6 mins
Dr. Sarena Shivers, Executive Director of Talent Together joins us to discuss a program that hopes to address the teacher shortage problem in Michigan's workforce.
More information can be found at: https://mitalenttogether.org/
More information can be found at: https://mitalenttogether.org/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, here's an idea. Do you have a little staff shortage,
why not grow new ones? Not quite what you're thinking of.
This is West Michigan's Morning News, Steve Kelly and Brett Tita.
That's Lord Smith, executive director Talent Together, Doctor Serena Shivers
back on the liveline with us this morning. Doctor Shivers,
thanks for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you so much for having me so I love
that intro.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm reading five thousand applications since Talent Together first launched
in twenty twenty two. For those that don't know, talk
to us a little bit about how it really works.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, first of all, isn't that an amazing number? Everywhere
I go people say, oh, there's such a shortage of
people interested in being a teacher. Well, I think those
numbers show us something very quite different. So Talent Together
is an organization that is designed to find those in
their own communities that are interested in being teachers, or
(00:56):
maybe someone says to them, you would make an outstanding teacher,
and we help them do just that. We are focused
on putting high quality teachers in the classroom through this
grow your own model that looks for secretaries or teaching
assistants or food service workers or facility workers or bus drivers,
(01:17):
or parents that are in their own community always wanted
to be teachers, and we help them enrollment school. We
support them by paying the tuition costs. We wrap amazing
staff and other adults around them to help them throughout
that process, and we provide for them connection with a
(01:38):
post secondary institution that is aligned with the certification that
they are interested in obtaining, and we see them all
the way through that process.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
So I am the daughter of a teacher, and I
loved this designed by Michigan educators for Michigan schools. These
are people right in our community that know the need
and know how to equip these teachers, and the effectiveness
is pretty outstanding.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Thank you so much. I'm a teacher's child as well,
and I remember always being around people and sometimes thinking
people weren't teachers, and they weren't, And now I look
back on it and I was like, hey, they would
have been a good candidate for talent together.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
So doctor, let me ask you this also, by the way,
raising my hand, because both my parents were teachers, my
brother's a teacher, my wife's a teacher. So yeah, I'm
the oddball radio guy. But you will exactly. I want
to ask you this. If you're one of those let's
say you're coming out of high school and you want
to go into teaching, is it different as far as
the application process than someone that says, oh, I want
(02:39):
to go back and maybe be a teacher.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Not at all. In order to apply to Talent Together,
you just have to be eighteen and has completed your
high school diploma. So Talent Together is accessible by someone
who just finished high school and for a variety of reasons,
doesn't want to go to or may not be able
to go to the traditional university route. For example, a
(03:05):
lot of our teacher candidates may be in rural areas
where there's not a university that's close by, and they
may not be able to enroll in a post secondary
maybe moved to another part of the state. Talent Together
the coursework is completely virtual. We have nineteen post secondary
institutions that we work with, and all of them provide
(03:26):
their coursework through a virtual mode so that anybody can
access Talent Together anywhere that they are. The second part
of your question was about any age. You could be
in your thirties, forties, fifties, and maybe for whatever reason,
you started school at one point in time, or maybe
you didn't start school and now you feel like you're ready.
(03:48):
Talent Together's doors are open to anyone in the state
of Michigan that has completed their high school diploma and
is interested in becoming a teacher.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, perfect, I'm Steve. I'm just married to a teacher
and I got in trouble from a lot of teachers.
But not just numbers, Doctor Shivers, talk to us a
little bit of the quality of the product, the quality
of the teachers that come out of this program too.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, that's a great point, and I'm so glad that
you made that point because oftentimes people think, oh, you're
just really focused on getting butts in the seat, and
that's not true at all. We really partner with our
post secondary institutions that are amazing to make sure that
these teacher candidates are getting high quality instruction, that they
(04:32):
are partnered with mentor teachers, that we invest a lot
of professional development as well in and support the mentor teachers.
Our staff pushes into the classroom to observe throughout their
experience and talent together and to give tips and to
give ideas and to give strategies instructional methods that really
(04:56):
ensure that when they exit Talent Together, they are prepared.
There's one other piece of Talent Together that I refer
to as the second secret sauce. The first is amazing people,
but the second thing is that our candidates go through
a full year of what those of us that have
been in teaching for a while used to think of
as student teaching. They go through a full year instead
(05:18):
of just a semester. So they start the school year off,
they're they're doing, you know, some of the middle of
the school year, and they in the school year in
the same classroom, taking over that classroom by the end
of the year. That's unprecedented. That's typically not the model.
And we are partnered with the Department of Labor and
that year long experience is called a registered apprentice program.
(05:43):
And the other beauty of that is that it is
a earn and learn model. So during that year long
internship quote unquote if you would call it, they earn
eighty percent of a teacher salary and full benefits.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Wow. You will find the link to am I Talent
Together dot org. Doctor Serena Shivers, executive director of Talent Together,
Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Thank you so much for having us, and we look
forward to applications coming in soon. If you go to
the website, you can fill out an interest for them
and we'll let you know when the application window opens.
Well, here's an idea. Do you have a little staff shortage,
why not grow new ones? Not quite what you're thinking of.
This is West Michigan's Morning News, Steve Kelly and Brett Tita.
That's Lord Smith, executive director Talent Together, Doctor Serena Shivers
back on the liveline with us this morning. Doctor Shivers,
thanks for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you so much for having me so I love
that intro.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm reading five thousand applications since Talent Together first launched
in twenty twenty two. For those that don't know, talk
to us a little bit about how it really works.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, first of all, isn't that an amazing number? Everywhere
I go people say, oh, there's such a shortage of
people interested in being a teacher. Well, I think those
numbers show us something very quite different. So Talent Together
is an organization that is designed to find those in
their own communities that are interested in being teachers, or
(00:56):
maybe someone says to them, you would make an outstanding teacher,
and we help them do just that. We are focused
on putting high quality teachers in the classroom through this
grow your own model that looks for secretaries or teaching
assistants or food service workers or facility workers or bus drivers,
(01:17):
or parents that are in their own community always wanted
to be teachers, and we help them enrollment school. We
support them by paying the tuition costs. We wrap amazing
staff and other adults around them to help them throughout
that process, and we provide for them connection with a
(01:38):
post secondary institution that is aligned with the certification that
they are interested in obtaining, and we see them all
the way through that process.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
So I am the daughter of a teacher, and I
loved this designed by Michigan educators for Michigan schools. These
are people right in our community that know the need
and know how to equip these teachers, and the effectiveness
is pretty outstanding.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Thank you so much. I'm a teacher's child as well,
and I remember always being around people and sometimes thinking
people weren't teachers, and they weren't, And now I look
back on it and I was like, hey, they would
have been a good candidate for talent together.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
So doctor, let me ask you this also, by the way,
raising my hand, because both my parents were teachers, my
brother's a teacher, my wife's a teacher. So yeah, I'm
the oddball radio guy. But you will exactly. I want
to ask you this. If you're one of those let's
say you're coming out of high school and you want
to go into teaching, is it different as far as
the application process than someone that says, oh, I want
(02:39):
to go back and maybe be a teacher.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Not at all. In order to apply to Talent Together,
you just have to be eighteen and has completed your
high school diploma. So Talent Together is accessible by someone
who just finished high school and for a variety of reasons,
doesn't want to go to or may not be able
to go to the traditional university route. For example, a
(03:05):
lot of our teacher candidates may be in rural areas
where there's not a university that's close by, and they
may not be able to enroll in a post secondary
maybe moved to another part of the state. Talent Together
the coursework is completely virtual. We have nineteen post secondary
institutions that we work with, and all of them provide
(03:26):
their coursework through a virtual mode so that anybody can
access Talent Together anywhere that they are. The second part
of your question was about any age. You could be
in your thirties, forties, fifties, and maybe for whatever reason,
you started school at one point in time, or maybe
you didn't start school and now you feel like you're ready.
(03:48):
Talent Together's doors are open to anyone in the state
of Michigan that has completed their high school diploma and
is interested in becoming a teacher.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, perfect, I'm Steve. I'm just married to a teacher
and I got in trouble from a lot of teachers.
But not just numbers, Doctor Shivers, talk to us a
little bit of the quality of the product, the quality
of the teachers that come out of this program too.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, that's a great point, and I'm so glad that
you made that point because oftentimes people think, oh, you're
just really focused on getting butts in the seat, and
that's not true at all. We really partner with our
post secondary institutions that are amazing to make sure that
these teacher candidates are getting high quality instruction, that they
(04:32):
are partnered with mentor teachers, that we invest a lot
of professional development as well in and support the mentor teachers.
Our staff pushes into the classroom to observe throughout their
experience and talent together and to give tips and to
give ideas and to give strategies instructional methods that really
(04:56):
ensure that when they exit Talent Together, they are prepared.
There's one other piece of Talent Together that I refer
to as the second secret sauce. The first is amazing people,
but the second thing is that our candidates go through
a full year of what those of us that have
been in teaching for a while used to think of
as student teaching. They go through a full year instead
(05:18):
of just a semester. So they start the school year off,
they're they're doing, you know, some of the middle of
the school year, and they in the school year in
the same classroom, taking over that classroom by the end
of the year. That's unprecedented. That's typically not the model.
And we are partnered with the Department of Labor and
that year long experience is called a registered apprentice program.
(05:43):
And the other beauty of that is that it is
a earn and learn model. So during that year long
internship quote unquote if you would call it, they earn
eighty percent of a teacher salary and full benefits.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Wow. You will find the link to am I Talent
Together dot org. Doctor Serena Shivers, executive director of Talent Together,
Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Thank you so much for having us, and we look
forward to applications coming in soon. If you go to
the website, you can fill out an interest for them
and we'll let you know when the application window opens.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com