weefella
What you can do in civvy street aviation is somewhat dependent upon what you want to do with your life.
From your post, it is evident that you are around 40 years of age. That is a bit late to start training for a career as a licensed engineer, not too late, but as has been pointed out it takes a while to obtain a basic license and type ratings and therefore become really useful to a maintenance organisation.
Regrettably, until you can become a certifying engineer, whilst useful for spannering, your pay will not really start to escalate.
There are openings for such as you directly in support roles, with a bit of extra training in areas such as logistics, quality assurance or planning. These don't need licenses but are not nearly so well paid but the quality of life might be better in areas such as working hours, environment etc.
If you aspire to management positions, you are also in a cleft stick since regulatory mandated posts like Aircraft Maintenance Manager or Quality Manager are normally required to be held by suitably qualified personel i.e. licensed.
Best of luck
(Ex fairy)