Thanks a lot guys, it seems that what ever I do will have pros and cons and I'll just have to make sure that whatever I choose, I do it with conviction.
I basically wanted to treat it like uni, i.e. when all the people around me leave for a degree, I move on to the training - thats why I booked the skills assessment for a month after my exams.
It's almost a case of if I pass the assessment or at least demonstrate elsewhere that I'm likely to make it as a pilot then the job doesn't matter. But then if I don't succeed, the job may bring the maturity and experience required to succeed at a later date.
Unfortunately I'd need to take the job before I know if I've got in or not...and what kind of an employee would that make me if I left after a month or two, when I knew that was a possibility all along.
The job market is what concerns me most - when I started speaking to FTOs 2 years ago they all said that jobs were on the up and would be for around 5 years...it seems that they're levelling out now and either way an ATPL becomes an even more expensive license when you don't have any job prospects. The problem is you could argue that it would be best to train as soon as possible and hit the market whilst it's still strong, or you could say that a job would give me an income, a fall back plan and perhaps make me a bit more world-wise.
Ultimately I want to train and I've been looking forward to it ever since i realised it was a possibility. I'm confident I would succeed academically, but obviously I don't know about aptitude and the Oxford assessment will be my first indicator. I'm just concerned that FTOs consider 19 to be too young for some people, yet just right for others - all depends on how you can demonstrate maturity. So do I miss out on a year of flying to develop a maturity that I feel is already there? Tough questions...
Anyway, sorry for being so long but thanks for all your help - it's all well and good asking teachers and parents but few of them have a clue what I'm talking about when I mention training to be a pilot.
Thanks!