I'm also a recent Aero Eng Graduate, I started training in September.. . My No 1 priority is to become a proffesional pilot of some sort shape or discription, but we are in the privalaged position of having qualifications in an indutsry desperate for engineers and there is no shortage of well payed engineering jobs, regaurdless of your age, to fall back on if the industry is doesn't pick up.
Alot of the part sponsorship programmes I have read about ask for PPL & 150 hrs before application, that can take a while to achive and gives time to monitor the industry and also adjust the pace of your training appropriately.
In my case the decision came down to how much I want to be a pilot and how little I want to be an engineer!
Try asking some training organisations about it.
Best of Luck.