Before choosing a course, find out what the work feels like. An occupation can sound attractive while its ordinary tasks, working conditions and training demands remain a mystery.
Pick two kinds of work that interest you. Ask someone doing each job to describe a normal week, including the repetitive tasks and the problems beginners find difficult. Ask what they enjoy, what frustrates them and what they wish they had understood before starting.
Compare pathways against a real destination
Make a page for each route into the work. Record current entry requirements, costs, training arrangements and time commitments from the provider's own information. Where a qualification or licence is required, check with the responsible body. Keep a link and a date beside each finding so you can revisit it before committing.
Look for a suitable opportunity to observe or try part of the work. A supervised project, introductory session or workplace visit can give you questions that a promotional video never raised. Discuss safe and appropriate arrangements with the people responsible.
Notice the distinction between enjoying a subject and enjoying a particular job. You may love biology without wanting the daily work of a laboratory, or discover that a practical repair makes the underlying mathematics interesting.
Write down your next manageable step and the evidence that would make you reconsider. That could be another conversation, a short project or a closer examination of a course's assessment and support.
University, vocational training and learning through work each deserve serious consideration. The useful comparison concerns the learner, the work and the quality of the pathway. Prestige alone cannot make that decision for you.