There is, sadly, an ever increasing trend in such things of 'study for the job you want... then sign on, because nobody is hiring.'
I'm not sure how much this'll help, but when I decided that I wanted to work in comics, I looked for ways into it that offered less resistance. Hence, I never tried out for writing gigs. That's a 99% guarantee of failure. I didn't try out for artist gigs, because I knew my quality of work at the time just wasn't good enough to make an impression. Instead, I started learning the lay of the industry and looking for more realistic ways in. Hence, I learned how to letter comics. Because fewer people blitz publishers and message boards with requests to do that, in comparison. I learned the craft from two textbooks, and the result has been that I've worked solidly for about 6 years and worked on award nominated comics. I did that with no more than my GCSE's under my belt.
It may be that there are ways you can get involved in the anime industry, but you may have to work very hard at some thankless tasks. I have no idea, really. It seems to me that, short of being a privately wealthy individual with money to throw at a business venture, there's no easy way in. The entire Western arm of the industry seems pretty small.
Qualifications certainly don't mean jack. Common sense, good people skills and the ability to make things happen is what counts in most career paths. And with anime, it seems that all the savvy and business education in the world can't protect you from the sheer cost of doing business or the many, many potential pitfalls.
Maybe there's another route you could take besides working for a distibutor? Maybe you could hone your knowledge and skills and go into a field that's related to anime, like journalism or merchandising? I personally think there's room for more publications that deal with anime or Japanese culture. We know NEO and MyM. But is that really IT? Could something like the old Anime UK magazine work in today's climate?
Just spitballing ideas there.