Some young graduates with eyes on career in spying or policing will be looking for a new life’s ambition, after budget cuts meant their cadetships were cut short.

Several people from this year’s planned intake of apprentices have been dumped partway through their recruitment to the Defence Department, the Australian Signals Directorate, and the Australian Federal Police.

The cancellations comes after similar cuts left 38 successful applicants to AusAID's prestigious graduate program floating in the breeze of uncertainty.

Foreign Affairs was heavily criticised for removing the AusAID cadets as part of broad “machinery of government” changes, as it was able to fully retain its own graduate program. A later deal meant that at least half of the would-be foreign aid workers were offered positions in other public service sectors.

Reports say up to 60 hopeful recruits across the police and intelligence departments will have to find something else to do, as their future jobs have fallen victim to public service funding cuts.

For some it means nearly a year has been wasted on the lengthy approval process, with many intelligence applicants undergoing rigorous psychiatric assessments and invasive security clearance processes for no reason.

One anonymous man interviewed by Fairfax Media outlets said he was unceremoniously cast out.

“There was no suggestion that I might maybe apply for something else, it just said that if I was still keen to apply for an IT apprenticeship then I should apply again in June,” he said.

“That was it, bye-bye... I was very disappointed."

“It was big process and all that time and energy was put into nothing,” he said.