The finishing school of France's governing class is to lose its automatic access to top state jobs under a reform announced yesterday by the Government of President Sarkozy.

The measure is the first part of a move promised by Mr Sarkozy in his 2007 election campaign to end the near monopoly of the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA) over the levers of state power.

Mr Sarkozy, a longstanding foe of les énarques, as alumni of the small post-graduate college are known, has also pledged to shrink the institution and broaden its intake beyond the upper classes that dominate it.

“It is shocking that a competitive exam taken at the age of 25 can dictate your whole professional career,” Mr Sarkozy said earlier this year.

Outlining the first reform yesterday, Eric Woerth, the Civil Service Minister, said that recruiting at the top of the civil service would be brought into line with the private sector.

Until now the 130 annual ENA graduates were ranked in a league table and the most successful had the right to walk into the senior ranks of the corps d'état of their choice. The Finance Ministry, Diplomatic Service and Council of State were among these.

“Oddly, at the ENA, it is the student who chooses the branch he joins,” Mr Woerth said. “It should be up to the branch to choose among the students according to their skills like the private sector does.”

The ENA, which is in Strasbourg, and its close-knit caste have been criticised for decades. Several candidates in last year's presidential election called for its abolition, but not Mr Sarkozy or Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate and ENA graduate who lost to him in the run-off.

The school, which was set up by General de Gaulle in 1946 to train the best students from all classes as fast-track mandarins, is more dominated by the offspring of the highly educated than it ever was.

Former students include Presidents Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, seven prime ministers and more than 100 Cabinet ministers. Mr Sarkozy appointed only one ENA graduate to his Cabinet but they dominate the private offices of his ministers.

Christian Noyer, the governor of the Bank of France and Jean-Claude Trichet, the governor of the European Central Bank, are also graduates of the school.

Former ENA civil servants no longer enjoy the royal route to corporate boardrooms that they once did. In 1995 they made up 20 per cent of senior private sector executives. The figure is below 10 per cent now. A report this year said that companies found the énarques arrogant, technocratic and ill-suited to business.

The Government is consulting experts to find ways of broadening the intake, Mr Woerth said. Mr Sarkozy promised to maintain the college but bring it more into line with a modern postgraduate business school. Age limits will be lifted, courses will be shortened and more time will be given to experience in the field.

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