Well the Student (unvalidated) licence lasts 2 years before you must do the FULL course again. You have 6 months to start training before you require an APC.
So start hunting, be prepared to travel and work anywhere!! Remember once you have valid licences you are a useful and in demand so you can start small and work your way up - dreams of Heathrow or Hong Kong may have to go on hold for a bit!!
There are loads of units out there, recession is a tricky time to job hunt though, even the bigger units(some I can think of anyway) are running on low numbers to keep costs down.
Get out on visits with your cv, know your stuff and you may just plant a seed that'll come home for you later on.
Best of luck.
SP.