Many corporations view training as a luxury, with training funds the first to be cut in a budget crunch. Train the IT staff on technologies and practices as these skills can be put into immediate use in the organization. Self-guided materials are handy here. Be careful to train them on skills that will help them in their jobs and aren't a free meal-tick et to their next job. And cross-train them.
Training is an investment, so measure the payback.
You will not only populate your IT department with key skills, but also you'll be keeping your IT people interested in their work. If IT people aren't learning something new, they're actually moving backward. A common problem is communication among the different groups in a large IT department as well as with the business units. Application developers don't necessarily talk to the network or WAN people until the application is developed and its performance isn't up to par. Again, use IT people's desire for new skills to your organ ization's advantage.