The École nationale d'administration (ENA; ; ), one of the French graduate schools  (Grandes écoles), was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials. It is one of the most prestigious and elitist French schools, not only for its acceptance rates (1/16 for the "concours externe") but especially because a large majority of the candidates already graduated from the best "Grandes écoles" of the country such as Sciences Po Paris, HEC Paris, ESSEC or the École Polytechnique.