This chapter serves as an initial endeavor to investigate the potential utility of the idea of self-cultivation in constructing an alternative approach to prevalent approaches in engineering education, which predominantly concentrate on the development of employable skills for individual engineers. To achieve this goal, this chapter first conceptualizes a challenge central to dominant approaches to engineering education which is the lack of the self-dimension. It then provides a brieft introduction to the Confucian theory of self-cultivation by comparing it with the Western concept of Bildung. Finally, this chapter discusses the implications of this self-cultivation theory for engineering education practice and research. It explores how teaching, learning, and assessment in engineering education can be defined and implemented differently. This chapter is expected to be of particular interest to engineering educators, administrators, and policymakers who are unsatisfied with dominant approaches to engineering education that focus on the attainment of measurable technical knowledge and skills.