A difficult one to judge what the best route is with a longish reccession biting the industry. The college route is expensive and while it reduces the minimum time requirement to two years 145 employment time, you will still be a beginner in the industry when you leave college and while some places will be willing to take you on, competition is very tight for jobs and some places will want people "who are proven that they can open the can!!" The RAF route is hoping that you will get aircraft employment (there are other facets of RAF engineering employment that you will not see an aircraft.. rare but possible), however they will pay a large percentage of the fees for doing the modules via a recognised ELCAS distance learning course. You would have to put the time in to self study, even with the distractions of service life that regulary inject into any spar time you have. You will also have to do a minimum of a years 145 time and fulfil all the practical tasks required for the respective licence. A degree means nothing in the business without ALL the CAA modules, unless management is going to be your ultimate objective. If you can get into an appenticeship scheme or any other set up that will get you the ticket, there are some companies that do such. Again the recession is affecting these schemes. Personally I did 25 years in the RAF and studied the modules in the last 2 years. Am still converting from mil speak to the industry (terminology and the difference in certain cultures is the biggest leap, the nuts and bolts are similar, of course) however I find it rewarding. I didn' get in with my preferred employer (although I managed to get important connie time with them) and my second interview got me a permie position. This however is not close to my settled home, an unfortunate side effect of the current climate and how this industry works as a whole anyway. This job however should allow me to jump the last hurdles..