Due to their numerous advantages, laparoscopic surgical procedures are increasingly becoming common in the operation theatres over the past few decades. Virtual reality training simulators have played a significant role during this transition from traditional to laparoscopic procedures by enhancing surgical skills, such as hand-eye coordination in laparoscopy, and practising surgical scenarios that cannot be easily created using physical models. This paper presents a general framework for such a training simulator while identifying its key components and their specific roles in enhancing various laparoscopic skills. The paper also describes a laparoscopic simulator, developed in our lab, based on the proposed framework. The results are promising and open new doors for research and development.