You don't need a degree for accountancy so quitting work for full time university would have been pointless anyway and therefore it's good that you can't do that. 
The qualifications require both exams to be passed (professional exams not academic exams so it is a different style of writing) and practical experience requirements to be demonstrated in the workplace. Usually 3 years of relevant workplace experience is also required (during which time specific competencies have to be demonstrated and signed off).
Might not hurt to do an entry level course like AAT to see how you get on with it. Most of accountancy is less about the numbers and more what you do with the numbers, legal and regulatory compliance, business advice, etc. Depending on specialism.
Normal accountancy training involves working full time whilst studying and doing exams. If you were on a training contract the employer would pay for your study courses and also give you time to attend them, but you'd have to do your own study and revision beyond that.
What would your end goal be? To become a chartered accountant? You would need to do the ICAEW or ACCA qualification for that, although AAT might be a good entry point for you. To set up your own business or to offer services to the public? You'd need a practising certificate in most cases.
Audit and accountancy tend to have the most roles, but then there are specialisms like tax or consultancy you could consider.
Financial accounting generally means you'd work for an accountancy practice preparing statutory accounts or doing audits for lots of other businesses. You'd help meet legal compliance requirements and provide business advice. ICAEW or ACCA would be more useful here.
Audits involve spending time at a client's premises conducting various forms of testing and having discussions with the client. Things like attending stock takes, examining physical assets to confirm they exist (in reality not just in the accounts), reviewing payroll records, assessing business processes, etc.
Management accounting you'd work in industry dealing with the affairs for one business. You'd maintain the books and ledgers, do monthly management accounts, cashflow forecasts, budgets, etc. CIMA or maybe ACCA would probably be more useful on this path.
Or outsourcing / bookkeeping, maintaining the ledgers and records for lots of businesses and preparing management accounts and VAT returns. AAT might be sufficient although people do go on to do chartered exams.
Or tax, helping businesses or individuals manage their tax affairs, deal with HMRC, preparing tax returns, explaining complex law to lay people, giving advice on the tax consequences of decisions and the best way to structure affairs or business restructuring. You would need ATT and/or CTA. This is more technical and specialised, involves lots of legal knowledge, and a bit smaller recruitment market than audit/accounting/consultancy.
As well as numbers you would need to be comfortable with technology and digital ways of working for all of these. There is a lot of change happening in the field.
Number crunching is a small part of most roles - numbers are more the medium the work is expressed through.
In audit, hardly any of the work will be about doing anything with the numbers, they are more like a language.
In tax, especially in advisory most of the work is about analysing and applying law (some of which can be complex).
In financial accounting, the numbers are important but if you look at a set of statutory accounts the vast majority of the pages are actually words explaining policies and performance - as a financial accountant you would also be involved in preparing / reviewing those, and ensuring compliance with accounting standards in how the numbers are prepared.
Bookkeeping / outsourcing, and some parts of management accounting that involve quite complex calculations and formula, have the most focus on the numbers themselves.