Once a child has obtained Swimming Diploma A, Swimming Diploma B  and the full Swim-ABC (Dutch National Standard for Water Safety) are also within reach. The starting point for the average child to obtain Swimming Diploma A is a total of 48 hours of swimming lessons. Swimming Diploma B is set at 12 hours, and another 12 hours are required for Swimming Diploma C.

There are great differences between children in the Netherlands. The total duration depends in part on the children’s characteristics. It may take time for a child to feel comfortable in the water (no fear), and some children may pick up a swimming technique faster than others. The quality of the instructors is also key. Properly adapting lessons to all the children in the group requires extensive knowledge and expertise. Total lesson time is not related to how many times a week a child takes lessons. It doesn’t matter if you have 1, 2 or even 3 lessons a week. However, there are doubts about extremely short courses in which children obtain their diplomas within a limited number of weeks. Although they may meet the standards at that time, we believe that “learned quickly” also leads to “forgotten quickly”.