The idea is not just for those who want to spend a lifetime becoming spies. Whitehall officials are now examining whether recruitment to the secretive listening agency could be opened up to graduates who would ultimately like to set up their own companies or work in the commercial  IT sector.

The scheme is being loosely modelled on the highly successful Teach First programme, where graduates agree to work in challenging schools for at least two years after leaving university with the prospect of a top-level commercial job at the end of it should they decide to leave the profession.

The Government is also examining whether any of GCHQ's intellectual property could potentially have civilian and commercial applications – particularly in the realm of cyber security.

The initiative comes after ministers examined the success of Israel in nurturing tech entrepreneurs who have worked in the Israel Defence Forces' Unit 8200 – its equivalent of GCHQ. Several alumni of Unit 8200 have gone on to found leading Israeli IT companies, among them the cyber-security company Palo Alto Networks, which is now worth around $10bn (£6.4bn), and the instant-messaging company ICQ, which was sold in 2010 to Digital Sky Technologies for nearly $200m.