Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse if open courses, including massive open online courses (MOOCs), can be used as professional development despite their openness since the openness not only brings together individuals from different organizations but also may make the results of collaboration public. Design/methodology/approach: The setting is eight companies in different sectors and networks, collaborating with Higher Education Institutions in developing open courses in externally funded projects. The opinions of managers and HR-specialists in the companies are investigated and analysed. Findings: The managers and HR-specialists are positive to open courses that deliver professional development. They consider the openness in this kind of course to be of no significant problem. The employee knows what can be shared and what can be kept secret. The conditions are, however, different depending on the kind of company and the kind of inter-company relationship that exists. Research limitations/implications: Several interesting questions arise for future research about the use of open courses as professional development in different categories of inter-firm relationship and trust. Practical implications: If the openness is not a hindrance open online courses would appear to meet the requirement of flexibility; they have the potential of being suitable for professional development for individuals who want to increase their competence, but also as organized professional development in organizations and businesses. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies of the openness as a potential hindrance when open courses including MOOCs are utilized as professional development.