You'll be amazed at the guys you'll meet at flying clubs, a friend of mine was talking to an instructor at a flying club last year not knowing that the guy was an examiner for a huge airline.
Following week he got an invite to the Sim and got the job the following week, so networking is the best way to grab yourself a good job!
Ryanair can and will send you far away from home if they want to by the way, so again keep an open mind about where you want to be based especially when you're starting off.
Regarding funding, should I raise the money through part-time work which would be slow or should I look for a loan to fund everything at once?
It depends on a number of things, but the way I look at it.
If you pay, say £50-60k for flying modular imagine in a couple of years time you meet a pretty girl and you and her decide you would like to move in together. Do you honestly think a bank is going to give you a mortgage if you have a huge loan sitting behind you?
Get yourself a job in something you enjoy and work full time while doing the flying, there is nothing wrong with a bit of debt but £50-60k is a lot!
However! If in the years to come there are loads and loads of jobs, it might be worth taking the risk but again it's far too hard to tell. It's something you will need to have a good hard look at.
Just remember, it's a job at the end of the day don't just think of it as a dream there are plenty of airline captains out there that get no greater pleasure than flying a C152 around with a student under their wing.