Air Traffic Controlling (if you go in via NATS) will involve being on a training wage for three years, money goes up quite a bit after that. Financially, I'd say it's better than a uni degree though that's if you're amongst the couple of percent of people that make it in and subsequently pass training. I'm also inclined to think they'll want you to stay for more than a couple of years. I don't know anything about the ATCO/SATCO route I'm afraid.
If you're looking at ramp jobs, take a look at platform jobs on the railway. At my place they earn £25k per year plus final salary pension plus loads of overtime opportunities. There's a bloke at my place who makes about £40k a year on the platforms, he does loads of overtime but if you want to save quickly, it's an option. You could also consider plumbing or something like that, I know a lad who did it for a few years, has a house (in London), spouse and kid at 25.