It's not all doom and gloom. Those with the determination to succeed are the ones who will. If you do a course, you'll need a second job as your income for the forseeable future, then when you feel you've gained enough experience, self employment is basically your main route to a career in this industry.
Team up with an experienced plumber if you can find one that will let you and learn from him, but please don't sell yourself short and offer to work for free as is often the case on the many posts about this on this forum. Teaming up with a plumber will be the hard part as often it's seen as training the competition.
Think positive mate!
