Given that you still have a job to support yourself, and if you haven' t made any debt then you should be in a comfortable position to wait.
If you have the money to pay for a SSTR with a job attached to it, then you could consider buying your way in.
Otherwise I would go the FI route for now. You could take 1 or 2 students and try to find a way to combine it with your job.
That' what I would do.