Wobble,
I would go for it; building hours, CPL module, IR will probably take you another year to complete (hope your looking to book your IR course now). Although the market for new co-pilots isn't that great at the moment, things can change quickly. Particularly as most job losses are due to companies "tightening belts" rather than demand offshore.
Its handy to have another job you can keep ticking over till you get your first offshore job (and one you can fall back on when made redundant!)
I started on about £45K as a 200hr total time CPL IR and as said before it can go up to 6 figures.
Good luck!