How can higher education educate graduates who know more than "just knowledge"? Such an education includes developing in students an awareness of the limits of their knowledge, an ability to discern what kinds of knowledge are appropriate in a given situation and a sensitivity to different forms of knowing. When is scientific rigour appropriate and when is another type of knowing appropriate? When should one set aside own preferences in favour of the needs of others? This paper rethinks "bildung" as a source of ideas on aims for teaching students. Making the arguably ephemeral ideal of "bildung" work in practice can be an obstacle. This paper, however, takes it as a positive challenge, exploring ways in which "bildung" might be appropriate in professional education. If "bildung" can be helpful even within this most applied part of higher education, implications in terms of the development of more readily applicable and fully inclusive notions of "bildung" would benefit not only professional education but also higher education more generally. Drawing on work by Wolfgang Klafki, the authors argue the value of updated notions of "bildung". Klafki's three-part conception of "bildung" as self-determination, co-determination and solidarity helps reconnect the importance of personal development with that of peer communities (e.g., professional bodies) and action for others. Klafki's framework facilitates working with ethical-epistemological questions such as these.