Fraser19, some of the airline schemes open in November like the British airways future pilot program and I believe that other airline schemes open around spring time. I think that if you want to go apply when your 17 and a half you should, in fact a fair proportion of cadets and airline pilots started training at that age. However if you want to have some sort of back up plan go to university. But if you are pretty sure you want to be a pilot I don't think you should waste three years of your life and waste more money on a degree that you will most likely never use!