It depends what you’re going to want to do long term. If getting a career and financial independence soon is a priority then it’s definitely worth learning a good trade. Uni won’t be a passport to a top job any more, but if you need the intellectual stimulation of learning at a higher level and the chance to learn new perspectives on life, uni can be brilliant. It’s too difficult to really know at that age, a lot of people just default and go to uni coz it’s the done thing and end up with loads of debt and no real advantage. Going down the trades route will set you up nicely in the meantime, but uni does gives you the time to develop a bit more as a person and expose you to new ideas. A psychology thing I was reading the other day about life decisions and personality said to look back at when your where 12 years old, and what were you like then? Did you enjoy learning things at school or struggle?

Decisions you make now don’t have to impact the rest of your life, plenty of people need time to mature before going to uni with a level head. I took two years out after A-Levels before going to uni to let off some steam ad it definitely helped motivate me more when I went.