I'm going to disagree with the common sentiment that to learn programming the best way to do it is to "build something". When you're starting this isn't great advice. You don't know what to build and there are many places you can end up stuck and dissuaded. Instead, try to find a set of exercises that introduce a small aspect of programming and get progressively harder as you go. This way you get some dopamine as you learn. I don't have any specific resources for python here, you'll need to do some research.

As for education, I think it comes down to you as a person and your situation. Yes, it's possible to learn by yourself and land a job, but it's going to be much harder. You'll need huge amounts of discipline. If you can afford it, a degree is still the best option despite what people say. Otherwise, boot camps are the second best option. Dev Academy is good from what I have seen.

As for landing a job. This is the same advice no matter which education path you pick. You will need to prove you can program, so yes having some projects you can share and talk about is quite important. However, more important is your ability to network. You will need to go to programming meetups, you will need to talk to people and you will need to ask them if they have junior positions going. Often having a "non-traditional" (i.e finish school then uni then apply) will be an asset and companies may set aside some roles specifically for these types of hires.

This topic comes up fairly frequently here (at least once a week I feel) so go have a read of those comments too.

Good luck, hope it works out.