Parents of preschool-aged children will receive $100 vouchers for swimming lessons in a move to relieve financial pressure on families.
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The NSW Government handed down its budget yesterday with the Learn to Swim vouchers specifically targeting younger children.
Moss Vale Aquatic Centre CEO Todd McHardy said the focus on younger age groups was important for the centre, which starts swimming lessons for kids at four months of age.
"This voucher that's just been released by the Government is really important," McHardy told the Southern Highland News.
"The NSW Active Kids voucher has been in place for a number of years now and been really successful.
"This one [Learn to Swim] is targeted at younger aged kids which is really good. The Active Kids program has been fantastic but that's only been accessible to those kids who have already started school, and our kids start much earlier than that."
McHardy said Moss Vale and other Bluefit-run swimming programs had seen a surge in interest after the outbreak of COVID-19.
"The demand for learning to swim [programs] is really high at the moment, because of the last 12 months," he said
"It's important that parents don't leave it too late to get into a program and particularly with this extra voucher coming on board I think that will drive demand even further.
"Luckily in Moss Vale we have an all-year round facility so it's a great benefit for the community...it's really important for kids not to miss out on an essential life skill.
"Every child is a little different. We try to run a structured program but certainly children move through that program at different paces. The end goal is clearly water safety and for some kids that can be achieved quite quickly, for others it will take time."
The Government is yet to release full details but the vouchers will be run similar to the existing Active Kids program which is distributed via Service NSW.
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