Darren,
I myself, was in your position some years back, I had just done 3 weeks work experience, for a Cargo airline within operations.. This gave the intrest and the taste for what is the Aviation industry...
You will need to establish, what job you want to do for an airline???
Following my work experience in the 5th year of school, I sent letter to every airline in the land... It payed off and when I left school I started as an Operations Assistant for a small (now bankrupt) airline at Stansted.. I then moved onto a larger european carrier at Luton (now bankrupt as well) and achieved promotion to Operations Officer !!!
I know work for a Major British Airways regional airline as an Operations Controller, all this acheived in 6 years of hard work within the industry..
As long as you keep pushing and dont aim to high at first. Work hard you could be in the same position as myself in a few years...