When it comes to new technology, an insurance carrier often finds itself in a difficult position: Its current employees know the company and the insurance industry but don't have the newer skills the company is seeking, or new hires may have some hot technology skills but don't know insurance and have no insight into the company's culture.

The IT Fast Track program at Nationwide is geared toward targeted training of specific skill sets, particularly among current employees, 10 of whom recently completed a successful 12-week training program in J2EE application development.

Tracy Smith, CTO for Nationwide Services Co., which provides infrastructure and corporate applications for the financial services company, explains the carrier was looking to train current employees in skills that may be in limited supply. "Frequently they are newer technologies," he says, "the kind that are difficult to find in the marketplace or where there is a significant hurdle in doing normal training."The first IT Fast Track program focused on J2EE, but Smith reports Nationwide will explore training programs for solution analysts, requirement analysts, and people involved in complex data modeling and middleware software. "The intent is to be able to do repeatable training in a focused area and be able to do it for the entire enterprise," he says.