He seems like a real self starter. If he has an aptitude for programming I'd recommend getting into mobile development as an independent contractor.
I'm not saying it would be easy. I started teaching myself iOS at the end of my sophomore year (4 years ago). In six months I felt comfortable accepting contracts off of elance. By the time I graduated I was employed full time as a contractor. It's just gotten better from there.
Mobile is one place where your past doesn't really matter. You either can or you can't. And your past doesn't matter much.
A few reasons...
1) Mobile is hot right now and skilled developers are still hard to come by. Employers who need a mobile developer are in a sellers market.
2) High quality apps can be built with a single skill set, if you know your SDK. The good web guys I know need to be experts at multiple languages, architectures, and services. I have one skill that I'm good at, but because no one else has it my career has gotten a nice jump to it compared to my classmates.
3) There is room to be disruptive. The web is 20 years old. iOS development is 4 years old and Android is three. There's a lot less baggage in mobile and a lot more room for a small team of developers to impact the platform.
4) It's cheap to get started with. For under $750 you can put together a serviceable lab to work in.
The bottom line is there are low barriers to entry and a high rate of return.
I'm not saying it would be easy. I started teaching myself iOS at the end of my sophomore year (4 years ago). In six months I felt comfortable accepting contracts off of elance. By the time I graduated I was employed full time as a contractor. It's just gotten better from there.
Mobile is one place where your past doesn't really matter. You either can or you can't. And your past doesn't matter much.