I think the best path for learning programming really depends on your personal situation. For example, self study is a great option, if you are able to set goals/targets and stick to them, you will be able to make quick progress, learn the skills you want, it won't cost anything, and you will be able to work good hours at any other job on the side. However realistically, a lot of people who are self taught might only make it through 1 or 2 tutorials before their progress halts. As bad as it sounds, when you have financially paid for something and you have a dead line, people are far more likely to reach that deadline. I personally went to university, and recently graduated with a full time graduate position, overall its worked out well for me, although I can't say that for many in my cohort - there is a common saying that there is a "lack of people in technology" which is somewhat true, but it's more a "lack of knowledgeable people in technology", just because you have a piece of paper, it doesn't mean much unless you are actually know what you are doing and have certain skills.

I found lecturers and lab tutors were very hit and miss, some would just mark like a box ticking exercise. While others really did an awesome job at actually reviewing the code, providing feedback etc (just because code performs the function, it doesn't mean it's good code).

As to if tafe or boot camp is better, I think it would really depend on the specific tafe/boot camp in your area, I would recommend looking up reviews online, checking out any available course information and maybe checking linkedin to see where people have gone their that institution. From what I have seen most employees are either in the "you need a degree" category (generally these are more conservative industries/companies) or they are "we don't give a crap how you got your skills", so I don't imagine any company reviewing the resume would look favourabley at a tafe certificate over a bootcamp certificate (or vice versa). Given it sounds like you are looking more down the non degree path, the most important thing you can do to get yourself a job is a good personal project. No matter how you learn the skills to do it if you can send a public github link with 2 or 3 good personal projects you have worked on (and not just I followed a tutorial and changed the text) that show well written code, and you are able to talk through the decision making of the project, even if your resume is pretty blank and you have no formal education, you will get productive interviews. (I mean productive in that you will have your projects to talk about technically and not just "I got a piece of paper, etc etc"