My advice would be to try get your son into helicopters if globe trotting and working with interesting organisations appeals.
Down here in Australia helicopter engineers follow their charges into the field and can end up anywhere from the Simpson desert mineral exploration camps to the Antartic , Asia and PNG whilst still being based in a capital city.Money much better than general aviation but still not as good as airlines but work more varied and experienced engineers in short supply.
I have been in the industy 17 years now with the first 7 working for a helicopter operator and the next ten for a major general aviation maint organisation working on light aircraft up to small exec jets and the chopper time was by far the most interesting and ended up seeing a fair chunk of Oz in the process .
I am interested to see that there is an over supply of engineers in the UK as there is a great demand down here with local companies actively recruiting overseas.Whilst the pay in GA is a joke cost of living and life stlye down here is good.
Brendon