181st Street · The Studio Hastings
Building a flagship technical education training programme in Hastings.
We are 181st Street, a marketing and communications agency based at St Andrew's Mews. We moved here from London five years ago, renovated three empty units into a creative studio in January 2026, and became a T Level placement provider with East Sussex College.
Four 16 to 18 year-olds are on placement with us now, working on live campaigns for national and international brands, and outperforming graduates 3–4 years ahead of them academically.
Technical education is the government's flagship education policy to tackle youth unemployment and the number of young people not in education, employment or training — which passed a million this year for the first time since 2013. In Hastings it is among the highest in Sussex.
At The Studio Hastings, we have a pilot programme already proving the value of technical education, and we're ready to expand.
We invested £20,000 renovating three units in January 2026 into a purpose-built creative studio, so we could become a T Level placement provider with East Sussex College. This is our recruitment pipeline. The behavioural science we practise is not taught at universities or in industry, so we train our own people from the ground up.
We have applied to the Pride in Place Neighbourhood Fund for £21,125 to expand into the unit next door — to build a dedicated creative skills development space, editing suites, and a soundproofed photography and podcast studio. It would take us from a handful of young people a year to 40, enable us to offer degree-level apprenticeships and give the town a facility that residents can use alongside students.
Improving a place raises what it costs to live there. House prices follow amenity value; wages do not follow automatically. So a young person in a regenerated town faces higher costs in the same low-wage labour market, and leaving becomes the sensible choice.
This is why skills have to sit alongside the buildings.
Investment in a town's fabric raises what the town is worth. Investment in its young people raises what they can earn. Only the second gives them a reason to stay — and it is what keeps the value of the regeneration in the town instead of exporting it.
Pride in Place has to mean pride in the people who live in it.
Hastings is the third most deprived district in England. Here is what that means for the young people we're training.
Hastings ranks 3rd of 296 on the Indices of Deprivation 2025, after Blackpool and Manchester. A third of its neighbourhoods are in the most deprived tenth of the country. Hastings has 60% of children living in low-income families, compared to 36% across East Sussex and 38% nationally.
3rd
Hastings is the 3rd most deprived district in England (of 296)
Indices of Deprivation 2025 — after Blackpool and Manchester.
60%
of Hastings children live in low-income families
Against 36% across East Sussex and 38% nationally.
2.6
average GCSE grade for disadvantaged pupils in Hastings
The national average is 4.6. A grade 4 is a pass.
22 months
of learning behind by GCSEs for disadvantaged South East pupils
The widest gap of any English region — and the fastest-widening.
15.3%
of post-16 maths resits reached a pass in 2026
19.8% of English resits did. Both fell for the fifth year running.
23%
of disadvantaged GCSE finishers were in no education or training by Year 12
Against 9.7% of their peers — they are outside the system, not behind in it.
8.9%
of Hastings Year 11 leavers have no plans for education, employment or training
Against 5.6% nationally. Nearly 1 in 4 disadvantaged leavers are NEET by Year 12.
40.9%
of working-age adults in Hastings are low-skilled
Against 32.4% across England — it does not resolve itself later.
The resit doesn't rescue them. The system's answer for young people who fall short at sixteen is to sit the exam again. In 2026, 15.3% of post-16 maths entries and 19.8% of English entries reached a pass. Both fell for the fifth year running.
The gap widens after GCSEs. The national disadvantage gap grows to 3.4 grades across a student's best three qualifications — more than a full grade in every subject they take.
Nearly a quarter are outside the system altogether. 23% of disadvantaged young people who finished their GCSEs in 2023 were in no education or training whatsoever at the start of Year 12, against 9.7% of their peers — a gap of 13.3 percentage points, up from 10.5 in 2020. They are not behind in the system. They are outside it, which is why post-16 attainment figures look better than the reality. You cannot fail an exam you were never entered for.
In Hastings, they leave with no plan at all. 8.9% of young people finish Year 11 at a state-funded mainstream school with no plans for education, employment or training, against 5.6% nationally. Nearly 1 in 4 disadvantaged Hastings school leavers become NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) by Year 12.
And it does not resolve itself later. 40.9% of working-age adults in Hastings are classified as low-skilled, against 32.4% across England.
We're ready to expand. The pilot works. What we need is the space.
Read our story