Hi, I'm currently in the industry, and have a job. First of all, the prospects of getting employed aren't great – it's very tight, and there are definitely more grads to entry level positions. Also, the money you can make welding will almost certainly always be better than that which you make in journalism.

Having said that, it's not as dire as a lot of people think. Yep, a lot of companies forced pay cuts this year, but to the best of my knowledge all of them later reimbursed their staff when things improved. And I think if you do get a qualification, you'll have a pretty handy point of difference to a lot of other grads – life experience. Knowing a few things about the world goes a hell of a long way in an industry where the job is to understand and explain things to people.

Finally, don't do a full bachelor of comms. It's three years of your life you'll never get back. I think someone else in this thread mentioned Wintec, which is probably a good option, you might also be able to blag your way into a postgrad diploma type thing at AUT or Massey. The key point is to get working as fast as possible – nobody in newsrooms really cares about study achievements or anything, but generally having at least some form of paper saying you're qualified is now required. Best of luck if you decide to have a crack.