Advice...
Oportunities North of the border exist too.
I work in Prestwick, and i can tell you that Ayrshire is booming with aircraft jobs.
Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance Ltd (PAML) are a company who employ around 6-12 apprentices a year for their B1/B2 scheme. They are based at Prestwick Airport and send you to Ayr College to complete your modules. Details of jobs can be found through the Ryanair website around this time each year, depending on when they announce the scheme.
Elsewhere, British Airways and Loganair at Glasgow Airport also offer schemes every now and then as well. Again they would send you to Ayr College to do the modules.
I wouldn't give up on your degree though, it can only be seen as an advantage overall. I mean, is there really the need to place a lot of emphasis upon it in interviews etc.?
I wouldn't think so. The one thing that may be against you is age if anything. Generally PAML is cheap labour, as you'll be performing all the tasks of an engineer/mechanic and earning peanuts. About 6k a year comes to mind when I applied.
Lastly, I was like you when I was at college, wanted to be a licenced engineer and didn't want a desk job. But now, I can tell you that it isn't as bad as you would think. I've been working for little over a year in an Engineering Support company and the job has been great, so don't write off graduate positions in the office either!
Hope that helps, if you wish any more information just let me know.