They want to get us up to speed as fast as they can . . .

[shootingstar]

(William is talking with Ray at Ray's digs)

'I hate this.' (says Ray)
'What?' says William, noticing it is now 5.45.
'Doing this. I thought that's what I was paying for. They want to get us up to speed as fast as they can to do their dirty work, but we have to learn the difficult stuff on our own.'

(From A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Part III Family Business, chapter 35)

I take "to get someone up to speed" to be an idiom. Now then, is "speed" a noun or a verb there?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's a noun.
Are you sure it said "as fast as they can" rather than "as fast as we can"?

 

[shootingstar]

Thank you. Yes, "they" is correct.

 

[emsr2d2]

Sorry! I misread the original as "They want us to get up to speed ...", rather than "They want to get us up to speed ...".

 

[shootingstar]