In recent years the paradigm of teaching and learning has changed, with a plethora of research being conducted in this field, but all these changes and research have scarcely affected the lecturer training programmes. This paper presents a lecturer training programme implemented in a technical university and based on the competencies that lecturers should possess. To this end, we have conducted research to determine which competencies are essential and if our lecturers consider them important or are reluctant to acquire them. The programme is also designed to bring all the acquired techniques into the classroom and apply them to the student learning process. A further factor for the success of such training programmes is that lecturers should find them useful, not only for improved student performance, but also for their future professional careers, especially in an environment where promotion is dependent on papers published and grants obtained, and where education itself becomes a secondary objective. Our training programme started two years ago and since then has achieved all these goals, thereby creating a new network of lecturers committed to engineering education research and innovation.