I have been asked to implement Office Accelerator for Recruiting - which is like a ton of bricks to me because I am not sure where to start.

After combing through MS web sites and stuff it seems to me that the Accelerator is a framework that implements (as far as UI) a Sharepoint or Portal solution. The solution is "not an out of the box" and uses templates, guidelines, fragments... ?? ... from exposed MS code developed in C# using XML (taking advantage of the .NET framework).

So, although my semantics may be a bit off, if I am correct in the above then I suppose the next steps would be
a) Learn how to program with the Sharepoint (Portal) UI
b) Get sample solution and understand the technology/languages

Because of similar products being developed and implemented by outside contractors  - I believe our company has all the backend and user components (Sharepoint services, SQL server, Windows 2003 Server, Office 2003) - but as a lone developer again I am not sure where to start because I am not 100% sure what the Accelerator is.

I was going to put in a request to purchase MS Studio .NET (I develop now standalone legacy apps using VB6 - but I have been exposed to .NET) and start there.

Is my understanding of Office Recruiting Accelerator correct ?