Desmond Seepersad,a final year Engineering student from UCD, has been awarded second place at the Gradireland National Student Challenge.

The competition involved six extremely difficult tasks set by some of Ireland’s top graduate employers. This online competition involves verbal reasoning; numerical reasoning; commercial competency and multitasking. Desmond qualified for the Final from a pool of over 4,900 students who registered to take part in the challenges.

The challenges set were designed to mimic those used by assessment boards in Irish companies and were constructed by Lidl, PwC, EY, abbvie, Public Appointment Services and Bank of Ireland, with the help of Irish psychometric testing company Cut-e.

The fifty finalists were set further challenges testing their Planning & Organising; Leadership; Persistence; Execution & Customer Focus; Creative Problem-Solving & Resilience; and Leadership Potential, all key attributes that top graduate employers look for when recruiting for their graduate positions.

First place went to Griffith College student Matthew Foyle, with third awarded to Nathan Walsh of Trinity College Dublin. In addition to his second place finish, Desmond was also presented with an award by PwC for best in the individual challenge category. As well as these awards, cash prizes were also presented to students in a proze draw, ranging from €250 to €1000.

In addition to his second place finish, Desmond was also presented with an award by PwC for best in the individual challenge catergory. As well as these awards, cash prizes were also presented to students in a prize draw, ranging from €250 to €1000.

Gradirelland is one of the countries most popular graduate job and careers websites, and provides advice to students upon completion of their degrees in order to maximise their employability.