You don't need one to get started, only to make it more productive. The game will still let you drag items over to the slots over the pot. Just click the pot after you have selected some ingredients.

As for trainers I don't remember where I found the one I used. In some small town somewhere but I'm betting there is more than a list or two of all trainers on the Internet.

I think you can find a trainer for it in Tharbakin, but I don't remember for sure. If you don't find one there, it might be worth a quick trip down to Cathalon to look for one.

Thanks for the replies. I found a list which says that Alchemy trainers can be found in Rovant, Qudinar, Enclave.
Sine I haven't been in any of these places so far, I tried Rovant and now finally have the alchemy skill. Cost me 10.000 gold though... :)

I'm on my way to beating the game for the second time and here are a few of my recommendations/pointers.

Try sticking to the story up to around the first contact with your sister. This will give you a couple of quick exp quest to get you a few quick level ups. You can take other quests instead but take something. Killing stuff this early can be tough, so quest can help get you get up to scratch without taking a beating.

Watch out for all the wildlife early on. They are stronger than you are. Traps and bombs can help a lot. Nail bombs are fairly cheap and can do good damage to these early critters. Holding traps are very useful early on and I recommend leveling this ability up unless you just have zero interest.

Wolf hearts are good for selling and boar's tusks are alchemy gold.

You can stack most things which upgrades them. Spells, boosters, and equipment, including weapons.

Lock-picking doesn't need to be aggressively leveled up. Just a few times to improve your odds to the point that you can toss extra lockpicks at the problem. Spend your skill points in places you can't buy your way to a solution, like magic.

Take the teleport quest from your friend just outside of town (by the teleport). Work his quest line quickly and you will get multiple teleport stones which you are going to want as quickly as possible. You may need to do some running to get to the teleport he wants you to visit. Tip - the shinny rocks in the Grom camps are what he is looking for. Tip - leave one of your stones next to your favorite bunch of merchants to buy and sell more conveniently.

Watch out for archers in groups. Hide around rocks or find away to disable or kill them first. They will complicate your fighting.

You probably will be tempted to level up your fire magic. Its probably not the best idea most of the time. The early fire wall is useful in keeping baddies away from you but beyond that you are more likely to want what Earth and Water magic can offer you. But you need to find a trainer first.

In Tharbakin you can find a water and earth magic trainer that will give you a real bargain for training of 1,000$ instead of the usual 10,000$ He is hard to find but he has on robes. Find him and take the deal. Do one or both if you can afford it. Doesn't matter which.

You will probably start getting knocked down a lot as you get deeper into the game. There is an ability a trainer can teach you that will help with that. It will take skill points to improve, but it does help.

Know that there is a quest that will take you to the same temple you started out in that gets you past the locked gate. You get 5 skill points just for going in there. The guy with the key is in the north east in a small camp. Search the internet for ghost dwarfs(whom you will have to fight or run from) for more info.

(simi-spoiler warning for spoiler sensitive people. Non story related)
Know that south of Quidinaar on the road to Ashos there will be a major level boosting opportunity. Giant Trachidis are swarming the area both on and off the road. Take your time and kill every last one you can find. Make potions from their eggs and you should be able go from as little as 50 vitality up to almost 400. Don't rush trough this and walk away with 200. Also be aware that these goobers are some of the toughest creatures in the game if not the toughest. They hit fast, kill in a single strike, and are in very large groups. Come with a plan to kill groups which probably includes, hell bombs, traps, magic, bombs and more bombs. Tip don't make a potion without using 10 eggs at once if possible(see other post above on alchemy)

Cheese kill - You will come to fight many groups. Depending on your leveling path it may or may not be practical to just slash them all to ribbons. There is another way that is so easy it feels like cheating but never gets old. It may also be the only way at times. You will need to be able to paralyze the group in some way. Water magic has the freezing wave which is fantastic. Earth Magic has Ivy but it doesn't stop archers from shooting. However, it is easier to use because it works at long range. An easy way to group bad guys is to get their attention then run behind a boulder. Even archers will come running around the corner at which point you freeze them. Once everyone is grouped and immobile lay a strong bomb at their feet. If it doesn't go off you may have to poke someone in the right direction or wait for them to all start moving, but in the end the bomb takes them all at once. If you are overwhelmed this tactic goes a long long way. Plus its fun to see 20 bodies all go flying at once.

You can't be killed on normal difficulty but you can be on hard.