Hi,
Im a recently qualified young licenced engineer myself, there are more and more ways into the industry appearing, i was lucky enough to get on BA's programme, theres also a programme run by KLM and Kingston university and this includes a foundation degree and final option to complete a Hons degree, i belive that BA will go down this route soon too.
I think its a not badly paid job, but is not great when you compare it to the 4+ years training that u must complete, remebering thought that aviation has suffered in the last few years too.
There are 2 licence cat's B1 Mechanical and B2 Avionic, im B2, but id recomend anyone starting out to be B1 as its more flexible.
Hope this is of help.
Stu.