I think it's widely accepted that if you are in tech, your success is far more dependent on your actual ability, and schools haven't ever exactly been able to help with tech careers so far.
It's only University level certifications that make any difference for your prospective employers, but that does not necessarily guarantee the skills you need as an engineer (if that's what you are aiming for), and many businesses recognise this.
I got into full time programming job at around your age after a variety of education routes in sciences and arts (no comp-sci) and variety of crappy jobs.
No one seemed to be particularly interested in my lack of certifications when it came to interview time (even though they all have them on the job app). Once I could talk shop and show some small pieces of work and my potential could be recognised I was hireable.
I'm not saying it's ever easy to get a foot in the door, but if you focus on the work, your ability will show through in the interview process (if they are not simply a large corporation hiring through box ticking criteria, probably a bad place to start out when you are a junior anyway).
[Edit] I'm presuming your path is programming in some form... of course there are other areas of tech where you can't really get away from formal education and certification, e.g no company is going to let you near their ASIC design until you have some sort of qualification in electrical engineering + basic comp sci. If you want to just to coding generally however then my previous post applies.
It's only University level certifications that make any difference for your prospective employers, but that does not necessarily guarantee the skills you need as an engineer (if that's what you are aiming for), and many businesses recognise this.
I got into full time programming job at around your age after a variety of education routes in sciences and arts (no comp-sci) and variety of crappy jobs.
No one seemed to be particularly interested in my lack of certifications when it came to interview time (even though they all have them on the job app). Once I could talk shop and show some small pieces of work and my potential could be recognised I was hireable.
I'm not saying it's ever easy to get a foot in the door, but if you focus on the work, your ability will show through in the interview process (if they are not simply a large corporation hiring through box ticking criteria, probably a bad place to start out when you are a junior anyway).