At 35 I was self employed as a a motorcycle courier.
I went to college and did a 2 year IT course. After my first year on the course (i.e. before I was even qualified) I landed my current job in an insurance company. Started on about 16k, but I now earn plenty more than that. (I'm 40 now by the way)
You probably don't want to concentrate on the programming side of things too much as alot of companies are off-shoring the build work on many projects. (But it is still useful to know the basics) Having aome sort of systems analysis skills will probably get you further these days.
To be honest, the IT bubble did burst a few years ago, but it's currently not as bad as it was in the late 90s. There has been a few years now where the numbers of school leavers taking IT has fallen dramatically because they saw so many graduates were unable to find employment. Nowadays, the vacancies are coming back to the jobs market.
As for trades such as plumbing/bricklaying etc. They can pay great, but think back to the early 90's. If the housing market collapses, new building stops and you'll see alot of tradesmen fighting for work. Like everything, there are ups and downs that you have to be ready for.
Decide what you want to go for and push yourself hard. You can make it before you're 40 easily!