The government on Thursday announced it will start accepting applications for civil service jobs from penultimate year university students, to help tackle a manpower shortage.

Up until now, the only students who could apply were those in their final year.

"This initiative is not to snatch people from the private sector but to give greater certainty to those university undergraduates who, before their final year, have already made up their mind they want a career in the civil service," said Civil Service Secretary Ingrid Yeung.

"It's to give greater certainty to them. It's to enable them to prepare themselves better for civil service jobs. This is also a measure that has been in place in the private sector for a long time, so we're simply catching up with what the private sector is doing."

Successful applicants will receive conditional job offers in advance and will be able to start work as soon as they graduate.