Well, I have to put my 2c in about the school issue.
You do not need a degree to get a good job, Bill gates and Mark Zuckenburg both dropped out of college and look at what they've done. As well, I have a friend called Sasha who has not even gone to university but still got an engineering job for the military simply because he is just, well, smart. That said, a degree is by no means useless. A degree makes it considerably easier to get a job, a degree proves to your employer that you know the stuff and you can dedicate yourself to a task for a long time. If you don't have a degree how are you going to prove to your employer that you are, in fact, brilliant? (NOTE: Just because you have a degree does not mean you proved this) Not only should you know the stuff, you should prove to him you are a good team worker, can dedicate to tasks for a very long time and are able to handle stressful situations. It's very difficult to evaluate all of that stuff in a job interview, so generally it is BETTER to have a degree.
So if he is as good as you say he is, then he might still be able to get a job, the problem is it'll be harder for him to find one.