Although objectively measurable achievement of outcomes is an important guide to the quality of education, the process of defining and assuring the quality of technical education and training must include consideration for the context in which technical education and training occurs. It is also critical to remember that education has two sets of clients--students and employers. The following are among 10 policy recommendations that the National Center for Occupational Education has issued regarding defining and evaluating the quality of technical education: (1) view secondary and postsecondary technical as two distinct, related, but consecutive enterprises requiring distinct but related public policy; (2) devise more flexible approaches to programming and assessment of the various institutions delivering postsecondary technical education, including community colleges; (3) develop measures of success at the postsecondary level in the context of the complex nature of its student body and institutional clientele; (4) revise federal policy on funding, training, and financial aid to reflect the increasing relevance and value of noncredit and short-term technical education and training; (5) establish separate expectations and accountability systems for secondary and postsecondary technical education; and (6) stimulate the expansion of programs facilitating coordination of secondary and postsecondary technical education, including tech prep and articulation. (Contains 20 references.) (MN)