Airlift21
The UK City and Guilds certificates are good and Desertopsguy also offers sound advice. It is important that you know however, that any European based course you do should be to the ICAO Doc. 7192 D3 Flight Operations Officers/Dispatchers syllabus- this is the basis for all European operations officers- except those dispatching under FAR 121 rules.
SITA London, as I understand it, now does, or will soon, offer such a course with an online interactive training component- if it is the course material I have had sight of previously- as I believe it to be, then it impressed me. AVTECH 2000 is your other alternative toward the C&G certificates.
The question about what to do first, 7192 or FAA; my advice is to do 7192 then the FAA. The first reason is that you're in Europe and not the States and the ICAO based course is techincally more comprehensive and is not US/FAA centric in its syllabus. And if you have completed the 7192 course you'll easily do the FAA license when you can.
As to the question- will it help me find a job in Ops? Absolutely, its unlikely that I would hire anyone without a suitable ops officer qualification.