Skill is good and educational certificate is also good. Having any of them can actually put food on your table, but the question is which of them will you let go for the other. I mean education can get you a white collar job the same way a skill can too. For me i will let go of the skill because skill without basic education is not good at all. Because I have seen a situation whereby a guy with good skill who got a job was unable to give quotation and he lost the job .Formal education is good for everyone.
Even if you are thinking of learning a skill and profiting from it you must learn formal education. This is what enables you express yourself and present what you have to offer, in every skill communication and networking is going to make you expand more. In the aspect of obtaining a degree in this modern time, the economy has made it look like a joke but getting it isn't a bad idea. Have in mind that when you have a high paying skill there is no competition