Dropping out of Uni

My brother who is half way through his second year of a BA Finance and Accounting course is thinking of dropping out of Uni. His reason is because he wants to take up a Chef Apprenticeship position funded by the government. Obviously, my Mother is devastated as my brother is highly skilled in this field (accounting) A* maths and physics, he's getting 2:1 and firsts in his course and so on. We have tried to reason with him to continue with his degree and pursue catering at a later point, but he is quite adamant of dropping out now, as he's had an email from the company offering the apprenticeship which starts within 2 weeks and lasts only 12 months at a rate of £170.00 per week. He's already used his +1 year as he switched from computing to finance. The degree is completely funded by student finance and the family cannot help financially towards course fees etc. My question is: If he drops out now, can he postpone his studies for exactly 12 months and return say next February and pick up where he left off? Or would he have to repeat the whole year? Does a government funded apprenticeship have any bearing on future funding should he decide to go back? Confused and concerned sister!